Sources Confirm: Belief in Trump Crucial to Hamas Agreement to Peace Deal
Oct. 11—Several sources involved in the Gaza peace negotiations in Egypt have confirmed that the belief of the Hamas leadership in the willingness and ability of President Donald Trump to enforce the terms of the Trump Plan all the way through on the Butcher of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, was crucial to Hamas signing off on the first phase of that plan. That phase has them releasing all hostages, living and dead, in exchange for the release of 2,000 Palestinians held by Israel, including 250 prisoners serving life sentences, the withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to an agreed-upon line that would still give them control of 50% of Gaza, and a total ceasefire, which went into effect yesterday.
A source close to the White House said yesterday that "President Trump is totally committed to seeing his plan through, and that means giving Palestinians the opportunity to have their own state if this is what they want. He would be more than willing to oversee such negotiations with Israel in the future and would bring most of the Arab world to the table with him to get it done." Asked if Trump agreed with the statement of Hamas leader and chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya that signing of the agreement "means that the war is over," the source said, "that is absolutely the case. We are fully aware that Bibi wants to restart this war, but Donald Trump will not let him do this.
Weapons and Compliance in Future Phases
"The Hamas statement means that they no longer see the need to keep fighting for what they can get through the President peacefully," the source continued. "That also means that they will no longer need the weapons required to fight the IDF, and that they will give them up as part of the next phases of the Trump Plan. They have already told us they will do this. This is good enough for the President, and he will make Bibi toe the line. We know he says threatening things. In part, he believes what he says, but Bibi is also playing to his crazy right-wing members of his government. But the President has repeatedly made it clear to the Prime Minister that he will demand Israel's compliance with the Plan, just as he does with Hamas. The President controls the peace process here—not Bibi and not his lunatic government partners, like [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and [National Security Minister Itamar] Ben-Gvir.
"The war is over in Gaza, and I can tell you without giving details that the President intends to end the fighting on the West Bank as well," the source stated. "But this effort, which will also involve his Arab partners, depends on the success of the Trump Plan in Gaza. He has said that he wants to make the entire Middle East a 'zone of peace and prosperity,' and that means all the fighting must stop. War solves nothing and it kills innocent people. Diplomacy and the prospects for shared prosperity are the pathway for peace."
Trump’s Direct Role and Strategic Messaging
Asked whether Trump had, as has been reported and was stated by Hamas leader al-Hayya, given Hamas assurances that he would see the plan through and prevent Netanyahu from breaking the deal and restarting the war, the source said that this had been communicated to them from the mediators, with whom Trump was in direct and indirect communication. The source said that Trump had been in direct communication on this matter with his Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who were on the scene in Israel.
"The President told Steve 'make this deal happen,'" the source stated, "and Steve told him that he could get the hostages released without having formal agreement on the other points like Hamas disarming and what the new government would look like. The President told Steve to get hostages returned and then he, Donald Trump, would make everything fall in place as we go along. And the President said to make sure that all parties are aware that the hostage release and prisoner exchange are only one part of this multi-faceted Plan and I am in 'for the full ride.'"
Qatar Apology and Executive Order Shift Dynamics
This content of this source's report is confirmed in a Reuters wire this morning, which adds something previously reported here: that key to Hamas believing that Trump could handle Bibi and compel him to do what he does not want to do was his humiliation of Netanyahu by forcing him to publicly apologize to Qatar for the Sept. 9 Israeli strike on Doha, attempting to kill Hamas leaders, including al-Hayya, who lost his son and chief of staff in the failed decapitation attempt. Trump had himself apologized to Qatari leaders for the attack, which he was told about and did not support.
As the source above had told us last week, Trump basically made Bibi "eat shit in public," and that he did this because he knew he had to convince Hamas and his Arab partners that Netanyahu was not free to do as he pleases anymore. Trump followed this up by signing an executive order that says any attack on Qatar will be considered an attack on the United States, which means that if Israel or anyone attacks that Gulf state, they would be at war with the United States.
Reuters Details Hamas Calculations and Risks
Writes Reuters: "Hamas has called Donald Trump a racist, a 'recipe for chaos' and a man with an absurd vision for Gaza.
"But one extraordinary phone call last month helped persuade Hamas that the U.S. president might be able to hold Israel to a peace deal even if the group surrendered all the hostages that give it leverage in the war in Gaza, two Palestinian officials said.
"In the call, widely publicized at the time, Trump put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone after a meeting at the White House in September, to apologize to Qatar's prime minister for an Israeli strike on a residential complex that housed Hamas' political leaders in the emirate's capital Doha.
"Trump's handling of the Qatar bombing, which failed to kill the Hamas officials it targeted, including lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, gave the group more faith that he was able to stand up to Netanyahu and that he was serious about ending the war in Gaza, the two officials said.
"Now, after signing up to a Trump-brokered ceasefire on Wednesday, the militant group has put further faith in the word of a man who only this year proposed expelling Palestinians from Gaza and rebuilding it as a U.S.-controlled beach resort.
"Under the deal, which took effect on Friday, Hamas agreed to give up its hostages without an agreement on full Israeli withdrawal. Two other Palestinian officials, from Hamas, acknowledged that was a risky gamble which relies on the U.S. president being so invested in the deal he will not let it fail."
Breaking the Impasse
Reuters also reports on the negotiations themselves, citing sources who reported that they were stalled on Tuesday, Oct. 7, the anniversary of the Hamas massacre attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 innocent Israelis and others, and took 251 hostages, until Trump sent Witkoff with Kushner into the talks to break the impasses: "Trump's eagerness was felt "heavily" in the conference center, one of the Hamas officials told Reuters. Trump personally called three times during the marathon session, a senior U.S. official said, with his son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff shuttling between Israeli and Qatari negotiators...
"As recently as Tuesday, talks on how to implement the plan looked stuck around issues including how quickly and how far Israeli troops would withdraw in Gaza to allow Hamas to gather and release the hostages, an official familiar with the talks told Reuters. Mediators from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey were unable to get things moving, the source said.
Final Push and Key Players in Negotiations
"To break the deadlock, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Tuesday decided he had to travel to Sharm el-Sheikh," the source said, while Witkoff and Kushner flew in on Wednesday morning, and the talks kicked off around noon.
"The presence of NATO power Turkey's intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin was also important because of Ankara's strong ties to Hamas and President Tayyip Erdogan's recent meeting with Trump, after which he said Trump had requested he help convince Hamas to accept the plan.
"For two years Hamas has insisted it will only release the hostages in return for a full Israeli withdrawal and final end of the conflict. Israel has said it will only stop fighting when all hostages are returned and Hamas is destroyed.
Neither has totally got its way. Israel will remain in around half of Gaza for the foreseeable future, while Hamas survives as an organization and a demand in Trump's plan that it give up its weapons has been left for a later date. That dynamic in itself, with both sides needing further results, may help drive forward future talks," one of the sources briefed on the talks said...
Hamas Accepts Verbal Assurances
"Hamas came to a view that continuing to hold hostages undermined global support for Palestinians, and that without them, Israel would have no credibility to restart fighting," the Palestinian official said.
"However, the group received no formal written guarantees backed by specific enforcement mechanisms that the first phase involving the hostage release, a partial Israeli pull-back and a halt to fighting, will progress to an envisaged wider deal that ends the war," two of the Hamas officials told Reuters.
"Instead, it has accepted verbal assurances from the United States and mediators—Egypt, Qatar and Turkey—that Trump will see the deal through and not allow Israel to resume its military campaign once the hostages are freed," the Hamas sources and two other officials briefed on talks said.
"As far as we are concerned this agreement ends the war," one of the Hamas officials said.
Trump’s Upcoming Trip and Peace Messaging
Trump will head to the region tomorrow. The full details of his trip cannot be released for security reasons. Two fixed points of activity are known: he will address the Israeli Knesset and then, in Egypt, will participate in the formal signing of the Peace Plan phase one.
The source close to the White House stressed that this is not merely some effort to let Trump—who was denied the Nobel Peace Prize for this year but is already in the running for the next—bask in the glory of his accomplishments. "There will be some of that hero worship, as well there should be for what he has accomplished," the source said. "But what the President is doing is showing his continued commitment to the peace process, that this is not the end of something, but that it is the beginning of the end of the mess that is this region and that Donald Trump intends to stick at it, until he turns the area into a 'zone of peace and prosperity.' It is especially important that Hamas—and also Hezbollah—understand this. And he will say as much in his speech to the Knesset."
The sources cited in the Reuters wire said something similar: "|'Trump's expected visit to the Middle East from Sunday for a victory lap will further help ensure it [the current phase of the peace deal] sticks, even with tough details still to be agreed,' a source briefed on the talks said, describing the invitation from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as 'a very smart move.'|"