TEL AVIV – For eight months, the framework of the ceasefire that could end the war between Israel and Hamas was on the table, sparking anger from some over the delay and now praise for the newly elected president Donald Trump for helping to get it over the line.
President Joe Biden confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that the deal was based on the “precise outlines” of a May 2024 ceasefire plan that was “unanimously endorsed” by the United Nations Security Council. He also praised the work of key negotiators, including Egypt and Qatar, and the “extreme pressure” on Hamas for helping secure the ceasefire.
While US officials have credited cooperation between Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and Biden’s Middle East representative Brett McGurk for securing the deal, the newly elected president tried to take much of the credit for himself on Thursday to demand.
Biden “did nothing,” he said in an interview on “The Dan Bongino Show.” “If I didn’t do this, if we didn’t get involved, the hostages would never be released.”
The deal could soon end the more than 15-month war in Gaza that began on October 7, 2023, with Hamas attacks on Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took around 240 hostage, according to Israeli figures. a major escalation in a decades-long conflict. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has since killed more than 46,500 people, according to health officials in the enclave.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly thanked Trump on Wednesday for his role in the negotiations, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. He then thanked Biden in a separate phone call, the statement said.
According to David Mencer, a spokesman for Netanyahu, it was Hamas that had changed its position since the deal was first tabled in May. The death of its leader Yahya Sinwar, confirmed to have been killed by Israeli forces in October, had also played a role, he said in a ballot letter on Friday.
“What changed was that Hamas was severely degraded,” he said, adding that most of its leadership had been “eliminated” and “their weapons stockpile has been wiped out.”
In an interview with NBC’s “TODAY” on Thursday, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also said, “What really got us to this point was isolating and weakening Hamas.” Previously, Hamas had raised obstacles to the deal “time and time again” and “was unwilling to negotiate in good faith,” he added.
Trump’s support for the deal had “certainly helped,” but “we have to stop worrying about this whole credit business and who gets credit for what,” he said.
Asher Kaufman, a professor of history and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, also noted that progress in the talks came amid a changing landscape in the Middle East, although he credited Trump for the success.
“We must remember that the world, the region, has been changed by the weakening of Hezbollah, the weakening of Iran and the fall of Assad,” he said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “There are changing dynamics … that facilitate the possibility of such an arrangement.”
Nevertheless, he believed that Trump was ultimately “the game changer in a sense, because of the relationship between him and Netanyahu.”
Protesters call for the return of hostages held in the Gaza Strip in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Within Israel, many credit the “Trump effect” for the breakthrough.
Among them is Efrat Machikawa, whose 80-year-old uncle Gadi Moses remains in captivity. “I’m very grateful to the Biden administration for the very long period of trying, but I have to say the Trump effect is amazing,” Machikawa, 56, said Friday.
Machikawa, 56, added that she had not received news about her uncle for months, but that he is on the list of 33 hostages expected to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire. Not knowing his fate was “just terrible,” she said.
Trump was also seen as the ‘X-factor’ who got the deal over the line by Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was taken hostage and murdered in Gaza. Dickmann said in an interview Wednesday that the only thing that had changed since May was “that Carmel is now dead and Trump is now president, and now we have a deal.”
According to Palestinian figures, the death toll in Gaza has risen by more than 11,500 since May, although researchers have warned the death toll is likely significantly higher than official figures suggest and thousands of people are feared buried under the rubble.
Even Gershon Baskin, an Israeli who has acted as a mediator with Hamas for decades, credited Trump for the success, although he said it was “disgusting” that a ceasefire was only brokered eight months after it was first proposed .
A boy runs with a Palestinian flag through the central Gaza Strip.
Baskin, a frequent critic of Netanyahu’s government, said it was “outrageous” that it had taken so long, pointing to the fact that thousands of Palestinians and several hostages were killed in Gaza in the intervening period.
“It only really got accepted in the end because Trump came along and Trump told Netanyahu to do it,” added the veteran negotiator, who helped secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit more than a decade ago.
Just as it appeared poised to be approved, the deal appeared to hit a roadblock after Netanyahu’s office alleged that Hamas had reneged on part of the agreement — an accusation the group vehemently denied.
However, in the early hours of Friday morning, Nentanyahu’s office said he would seek approval for a deal from his security cabinet and then his full cabinet. The Israeli Supreme Court would then have 24 hours to grant an appeal.
If all goes according to plan, the deal will come into effect as early as next Sunday, the day before Trump’s inauguration.
But Baskin said he feared a “difficult process” in enforcing the three-phase ceasefire in the coming months.
“The crucial point is that it must be implemented now,” he said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com