Is A Gaza Ceasefire Deal Actually Close?

Donald Trump’s decisive role in pushing forward the potential ceasefire is evidence that Joe Biden refused to use his full powers as president.

By Jeremy Scahill, Drop Site

The prospect for an agreement to halt Israel’s war against the Palestinians of Gaza is at its most promising point in over a year. Sources close to Hamas’s negotiating team tell Drop Site News that on Monday Hamas agreed to the framework text—including an exchange of captives and hostages—and had not requested any significant changes or amendments. But the devil, as always, is in the details.

“Many of the obstacles have been ironed out,” said Majed al-Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, in a press conference in Doha where the negotiations are taking place. “There are many pending issues, part of which is related to the implementation. We believe we have minimized many of the disagreements between both parties, and current discussions are focused on final details.”

al-shifa surgery unit hospital destroyed in Gaza

“We are the closest than at any time in the past to a deal,” Ansari added. “This war should have been over a long time ago.”

Palestinian negotiators told Drop Site they remain cautiously optimistic a deal will be signed, though they point to previous rounds of ceasefire negotiations that saw Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insert new demands in the eleventh hour, effectively sabotaging the agreements. “I hope Netanyahu won’t play the same game of the last 15 months,” said one Palestinian source. Al-Ansari, the Qatari official, also alluded to the fragile nature of the discussions and past experience with Netanyahu. “The most minute detail can undermine the negotiation,” he said. “It is not about how big or small an issue is.”

What is different this time, however, is that President-elect Donald Trump has made very clear his demand that a deal be reached before his inauguration on January 20. The terms of the deal being negotiated are largely consistent with what was on the table last May when outgoing President Joe Biden first announced it. Biden allowed Netanyahu to steamroll him for months—rewarding Israel with billions of dollars in arms transfers and political support after rejecting that ceasefire deal. Since that time, tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed and maimed and an unknown number of Israeli captives killed, either by their captors or Israeli strikes. All the while, the administration and its backers repeatedly assured voters in the U.S. that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were working tirelessly to achieve a ceasefire deal.