At his seaside workplace complicated in Doha on Wednesday night, the Qatari prime minister thought he had a deal. Hamas’s negotiators, led by a burly former lawmaker, had left the prime minister’s workplace, having given up on an Eleventh-hour demand that was the final main impediment to a cease-fire in Gaza after 466 days of struggle.
Reporters had begun to assemble in an auditorium downstairs, anticipating to witness the prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, announce that he and different mediators had lastly brokered a deal. Two American envoys joined Sheikh Mohammed as he ready his assertion.
Abruptly, there was a brand new downside, based on two folks acquainted with the negotiations.
In a room elsewhere on the sixth ground, the Israeli delegation, led by the heads of Israel’s two primary intelligence companies, had their very own last-minute demand. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed to make clear the names of a handful of Palestinian prisoners whom Israel would launch in the course of the truce.
As his aides tried to resolve the ultimate hitch, Sheikh Mohammed sat in his workplace with Brett McGurk, President Biden’s lead negotiator, and Steve Witkoff, the consultant of President-elect Donald J. Trump, hoping that their efforts had not been wasted.
This account of the ultimate days of negotiation relies on conversations with 9 folks concerned in or briefed on the talks, a few of whom spoke on situation of anonymity to debate delicate diplomacy.
The truce that was finally introduced on the belated information briefing, hours after Israel’s new demand, was little totally different to variations promoted for many of the previous 12 months by mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the Biden administration, whose representatives met regularly with the opponents in Cairo, Doha and a number of other European capitals all through 2024.
What pushed the deal over the road this previous week was the unlikely partnership between the envoys of America’s present and future presidents, working in tandem with the Qatari prime minister in marathon late-night conferences. Whereas Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump have competed for credit score, the fact is that their representatives have been each essential to the ultimate push, every utilizing totally different approaches to push the Israeli management towards a deal whereas Sheikh Mohammed centered on Hamas.
Beginning final Sunday, the Israeli and Palestinian delegations, in addition to the 2 Individuals, spent lengthy days on the prime minister’s compound, near the old market in downtown Doha. The delegations, which don’t converse immediately to one another, sat in numerous rooms on totally different flooring, with Qatari and Egyptian officers passing messages between the 2 sides.
“They aren’t pure companions, however the mixture of those three people, and the three worlds they signify, was the one factor that was going to get this accomplished,” stated Thomas R. Nides, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel. “You wanted stress from all sides — stress from the Arab world, stress from Biden, and stress from Trump.”
It was Mr. McGurk, a veteran diplomat lengthy centered on the Center East, who has helped oversee U.S. mediation efforts for the reason that opening weeks of the struggle and who helped craft the deal’s difficult particulars almost a 12 months in the past. It was Mr. Witkoff, an actual property investor who plays golf with Mr. Trump, who was instrumental in persuading Israel to lastly conform to the deal’s contents. And it was Sheikh Mohammed who persuaded Hamas to make key compromises, whereas offering either side with the workplace area by which to wrangle the ultimate particulars.
The deal they sealed gives for a pause of no less than six weeks within the preventing, throughout which period Hamas has agreed to progressively launch 33 of the hostages captured in the course of the group’s raid on Israel in the beginning of the struggle on Oct. 7, 2023. In change, Israel has dedicated to progressively releasing roughly 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, a few of whom are serving life sentences for homicide, and permitting tons of of 1000’s of displaced Gazans to return to their houses.
The deal is extraordinarily much like proposals that the 2 sides almost agreed to between Could and July 2024. These talks broke down amid disputes about whether or not to forge a everlasting or momentary truce, whether or not and how one can enable displaced Gazans to return dwelling, how and when Israeli troops may withdraw from Gaza, and the variety of hostages Hamas may launch within the first weeks of a truce.
Consequently, the struggle dragged on, resulting in the killing of tens of 1000’s extra Palestinians, in addition to a number of Israeli hostages.
Critics accused Mr. Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks to keep away from a collapse of his governing coalition, which included lawmakers against a deal. Others stated that Hamas had deliberately extended the negotiations within the hope that Israel may grow to be entrenched in a wider regional battle with Hamas’s allies in Lebanon, Iran and Yemen. At occasions, Qatar refused to proceed mediating, accusing either side of halfhearted engagement.
Momentum returned after Mr. Trump’s re-election in November, even earlier than the president-elect warned Hamas that there can be “all hell to pay” if the hostages weren’t launched by his inauguration. He appointed Mr. Witkoff, who had no diplomatic expertise however growing business relationships in Qatar, as his emissary within the Center East. Mr. Witkoff had been enjoying golf with Mr. Trump in September throughout what legislation enforcement officers stated was an attempt on the former and future president’s life.
Quietly, members of the Biden administration reached out to Mr. Witkoff to see if they may work collectively on the cease-fire talks, based on two folks acquainted with the conversations. Regardless of huge political chasms between their bosses, Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff started to coordinate, typically speaking a number of occasions a day, based on one of many folks.
Nonetheless, vast gaps between Hamas and Israel remained. Shortly earlier than Christmas, with simply weeks left within the Biden presidency, Mr. McGurk returned despondently from a visit to Doha. He advised the Qataris that he wouldn’t fly again until Hamas made a transparent sign of its curiosity in a deal, based on two folks acquainted with his pondering.
That second got here within the first days of January, based on two folks concerned within the course of. Sheikh Mohammed persuaded Hamas to substantiate the names of greater than 30 hostages who can be launched in the course of the first six weeks of a truce, a long-awaited transfer that prompt the group was genuinely keen on a deal, the folks stated. The rationale for Hamas’s shift stays unclear, however analysts say that Israel’s rising dominance over Hamas’s primary allies, Hezbollah and Iran, left the group feeling remoted, whereas its personal losses on the battlefield in Gaza left it feeling weakened.
Mr. McGurk was knowledgeable of the breakthrough whereas attending his daughter’s birthday celebration at an indoor trampoline park on Jan. 4, based on two folks acquainted with the occasion. He left the social gathering midway by, instantly flying to Doha to satisfy Sheikh Mohammed, his Egyptian counterparts and Israeli negotiators. Mr. Witkoff joined him on Jan. 10, and the pair agreed with Sheikh Mohammed that the Individuals would collectively concentrate on cajoling Israel whereas the prime minister would press Hamas.
The primary remaining variations centered on the depth of a buffer zone that Israel sought to keep up inside Gaza’s borders, in addition to the variety of prisoners to be exchanged for wounded and sick hostages.
It was a go to at quick discover by Mr. Witkoff to Jerusalem final Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, that introduced a brand new breakthrough, based on 4 officers briefed on the assembly.
Mr. Witkoff sat with Mr. Netanyahu and senior Israeli officers within the prime minister’s Jerusalem workplace, with Mr. McGurk becoming a member of the dialogue by phone.
The 2 Individuals pressed Mr. Netanyahu to melt on the final two large obstacles, based on an individual acquainted with the dialogue. Mr. McGurk warned the Israeli chief that he risked shedding his finest probability of sealing a deal. Then Mr. Witkoff utilized the required stress, stressing to Mr. Netanyahu that Mr. Trump needed this deal accomplished, the particular person stated.
After the assembly, Mr. Netanyahu appeared to have modified his angle, 4 officers stated. He instantly ordered his 4 prime negotiators — together with David Barnea, the top of Israel’s international intelligence company, and Ronen Bar, Israel’s home spy chief — to Doha.
Over the subsequent 4 days, Sheikh Mohammed hosted a marathon collection of conferences, largely in his private workplace, as Hamas officers, Israeli negotiators, Egyptian intelligence officers and the 2 Individuals spoke with him, typically till the small hours of the morning.
The Israeli and Hamas groups, based mostly on totally different flooring, by no means noticed one another; they took turns coming into the prime minister’s workplace for updates on their enemy’s newest place.
Progress was typically hindered by the character of Hamas’s command construction, which required its leaders in Qatar to examine sure particulars with their counterparts in Gaza, who’re all in hiding and onerous to achieve.
Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff additionally usually checked in with their respective bosses; at occasions, Mr. McGurk was talking with Mr. Biden whereas Mr. Witkoff, simply yards away, was on the cellphone with Mr. Trump or his staff, based on an individual acquainted with the scene.
“We have been negotiating phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence and system by system,” stated Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, a minister of state within the Qatari international ministry. “It turns into exhausting mentally and bodily.”
The largest breakthrough got here near midnight on Sunday night time, based on three folks acquainted with the second.
Sheikh Mohammed advised the 2 Individuals that the deal may very well be closed if Israel might make two extra compromises, based on one of many folks.
Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff walked collectively down the hall to the Israelis’ room, the place the negotiators have been already talking by cellphone with Mr. Netanyahu. Becoming a member of the decision, the Individuals advised the Israeli chief {that a} deal may very well be reached if he agreed to barely improve the variety of prisoners concerned within the swap, in addition to barely lower the depth of the buffer zone.
After a loud debate in Hebrew between Mr. Netanyahu and his staff, they made the compromise.
The Individuals returned to replace Sheikh Mohammed.
“We can have a deal,” the Qatari chief advised the envoys, based on the particular person acquainted with the scene.
After a 12 months of failure, round midnight on Sunday, they thought that they had an settlement, topic to wrangling over small last particulars.
Nonetheless, Wednesday introduced extra hitches. With the information briefing scheduled for the night, Hamas instantly tried to reopen a dialogue about how a lot land Israeli troops would proceed to regulate alongside the border between Egypt and Gaza.
Then, after Egyptian and Qatari leaders had persuaded Hamas to again down, Israel pushed for higher readability about which Palestinian prisoners can be launched.
Hundreds of miles away, within the Oval Workplace, Jake Sullivan, the nationwide safety adviser, sat with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, awaiting information from Mr. McGurk.
Whilst Sheikh Mohammed lastly introduced the deal on Wednesday night time, the final prisoners’ identities have been nonetheless being clarified by the 2 sides, based on an individual acquainted with the talk.
However Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff felt assured sufficient to tell their bosses {that a} cease-fire can be reached, one particular person acquainted with the scene stated.
That last wrangling continued into Thursday, with Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff lastly leaving Qatar that night time.
The deal was cemented — and so was one of many unlikeliest pairings in diplomatic historical past.
Aaron Boxerman and Ronen Bergman contributed reporting.
