How the Israel-Hamas ceasefire came about  

AI

The article discusses the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal in Gaza, focusing on the final stretch of negotiations that led the agreement. Here are the key points:

* The negotiations took place in a two-storey building, with Hamas’s delegation on the first floor and Israel’s on the second floor.
* Mediators used pieces of paper to shuttle back and forth between the delegations, working out details such as maps of troop withdrawal proposals and lists release of hostages and prisoners.
* The pressure escalated in the last month, with Trump’s and Biden’s envoy convening in Doha for eight-hour negotiation on January 9th.
* A senior Egyptian official said that 90% of the outstanding issues had been agreed upon, but further talks were required to finalize the deal.
* Trump’s Middle envoy, Steve Witkoff, was dispatched to to meet Netanyahu and pressure him to set aside his final reservations.
* The meeting between Witkoff and Netanyahu was reportedly fractious, but it appears that the intervention from the Trump camp was critical in getting the Israeli government to agree to a deal.
* Hamas official Bassem Naim said that he “couldn’ imagine that [the deal] could be possible without the pressure of the incoming administration led by President Trump.”
* The final 72 hours of talks involved a constant back and forth over the finer points of how the deal would be implemented, including arrangements for the release of hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
* A senior Palestinian official said that “all the officials are here in the same building” and that “tonight is decisive,” indicating that the negotiations were reaching a critical point.
* The impasse was eventually resolved when mediators proposed that Qatari and Egyptian technical teams conduct searches instead of Israel, which both sides agreed to.

The article concludes that a deal which once looked impossible had taken shape, and that the podium was being readied for the announcement.

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