by Gershon Baskin

AsiaNews publishes the thoughts on the Gaza peace deal (in its first phase) by the political activist and mediator. A key player in the release of Israeli soldier Shalit, he has worked behind the scenes in recent months to achieve a ceasefire. Against the backdrop of Biden's weakness, the Netanyahu government's war at all costs, and Trump's strength in imposing peace (with Turks and Arabs), Baskin's remarks are a testament to the ongoing struggle.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) – “At 2:00 am, all of the participants in the negotiations entered a large room with tables and chairs set up in a square. The Israeli delegation sat directly across from the Hamas delegation. This was the first time in history that official Israelis and officials from Hamas sat in the same room. The deal was signed and now we have to wait for its full implementation. And now we can begin to breathe again.”

Gershon Baskin, an Israeli political activist, founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI), a former columnist for the Jerusalem Post, and a leading expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is among those who worked in recent months to reach the agreement signed overnight by Israel and Hamas.

A mediator and key figure in the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held by Hamas for nearly five and a half years, and part of the Israeli-Palestinian delegation received by Pope Francis in October 2024, Baskin has closely followed the development of the negotiations, working to open and maintain active channels of dialogue, especially with the United States, the Palestinians, and an Israeli leadership bent on war.

Today, in a lengthy piece posted on X and granted to AsiaNews for publication, he retraces the main stages of the mediation, which ended with the first face-to-face meeting between the parties. The mediation was hard, starting with the weakness of former US President Joe Biden and restarted with renewed momentum under Trump. Our agency spoke with Baskin last May, and he himself insisted on the importance of stopping the war to ensure the return of the hostages, a key goal for his compatriots, while the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu kept the conflict going to survive politically.

Below is Baskin's full text.

This is definitely a morning for celebration. The war is ending. The killing and destruction will stop. The Israeli hostages will be coming home – the living and the deceased. For Palestinians, there will be celebrations with the release of Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Gaza. Israelis and Palestinians will be able to breathe again.

First, we all have to thank President Trump and his emissary Steve Witkoff, and of course, Jared Kushner, who helped to put the full court press on Israel and on Hamas. Trump and Witkoff made sure that the Qatari Prime Minister, the Egyptian Minister of Intelligence, and the Turkish head of Intelligence were all present for the final push. This was a brilliant move. Trump locked Netanyahu into the agreement, and the Qataris, Egyptians and Turks locked Hamas into the agreement.

There are still details that we don’t know. What is important is that this agreement is a declaration of the end of the war, not a temporary ceasefire. There are guarantees that the war will not be renewed once Hamas releases all of the hostages. We don’t know the exact details of those guarantees – I had made some suggestions to the US and Hamas negotiators, but I don’t know at this time what has been concluded. We also don’t know for sure the names of the Palestinian prisoners who will be released and what the terms of their release will be.

What we should also know is that this deal could have been done a long time ago. Hamas agreed to all the same terms in September 2024, as outlined in the “Three Weeks Deal” that I had received in both written and voice messages, in Arabic and English. But at that point, the Israeli negotiators responded that “the Prime Minister did not agree to end the war.” Even though the “Three Week Deal” proposal landed on the desk of President Biden, his person in charge, Bret McGurk, refused to stray from the bad deal that he was negotiating.

I met with members of the American negotiating team in October 2024, and they were as frustrated as I was with their inability to convince Biden and Biden’s people to look seriously at the deal on the table. The Qataris invited me to Doha in October 2024, and I presented to them the deal that Hamas agreed to, which they were fully aware of, but they said that without the American adoption of the plan, nothing could be done, because the obstacle was Israel, not Hamas. That is the same message I received from the Egyptian intelligence – Hamas was ready for a deal to release all of the hostages, not to govern Gaza any longer, and to end the war. But Israel was not prepared to go ahead.

On December 26, 2024, I met with Ronen Bar in his office in the Shin Bet headquarters. In that meeting, three weeks before Trump entered the White House, I was asked not to use my back channels because “in three weeks there will be a ceasefire deal.” Trump told Netanyahu that he wanted a ceasefire before he entered the White House, and Ronen Bar knew it would happen, and it did on January 19, 2025. To me, it was clear that President Biden projected American weakness while President Trump projects American power.

From that moment, on December 26, 2024, it was clear to me that the only way the war would come to an end would be when President Trump decides it has to end. From that time, my primary efforts were to communicate with Steve Witkoff and find a way to work a back channel between the American side and Hamas, knowing that the negotiation did not have to be directly with the Israeli side. The Israeli side would accept whatever Trump forced them to accept.

In December 2024, Samer Sinijlawi heard that Witkoff would be speaking at a Bitcoin conference in Abu Dhabi. He suggested that we invest the money to go there and stake out Witkoff to make first contact. We did that, and we managed to speak with him, exchange cards, and we gave him an article that Samer and I authored together. That investment paid off big time.

Jumping ahead, after hours of working the back channel, on September 8, 2025, Hamas received from the Qatari prime minister the American proposal that I assisted in drafting together with Hamas negotiators. I was on the telephone with the American side at the same hour the Qataris were presenting to Hamas the final American proposal at 10:00 pm on September 8. The American side told me that Hamas planned to spend September 9 discussing the proposal and getting clarifications from the Americans, through me and the Qataris, on issues such as the lines of the Israeli withdrawal, the nature of the guarantees that the war would not be renewed when Hamas releases all of the hostages. Then Israel bombed the home of Khalil al Hayya, and that phase of the negotiations ended.

On September 10, one of the Hamas negotiators contacted me and said that the whole leadership survived the attack and that the Qataris had instructed them not to go out and not to use their telephones at all. Hamas was convinced that the attack could not have happened without the agreement of Trump. Despite the American denials, Hamas no longer trusted that Trump and the Americans were working in good faith. The proposed American guarantees were no longer relevant. The Americans requested that I tell the Hamas leadership that the Americans had nothing to do with the attack and that the US and President Trump were still committed to reaching an agreement to end the war.

Hamas’s messages to me were that they had no faith in the Americans because Israel could not have attacked in Doha without the American agreement. On September 10 at 1:22 am, Witkoff sent me the following message: “We had zero to do with this. They (the Israelis) have apologized to us. Their statement confirms this. And the President’s Truth Social post attests to it.”

During the period between the Israeli attack in Doha and September 19, I was working on ways to get back to the point where we were negotiating the end of the war, with all of the details. Hamas was in a paralysis mode and did not know what to do or how to get back to talks about ending the war.

On September 19, in the late evening, Witkoff called me and said, “We have a plan.” We had a long conversation, and I supported what the Americans were planning, and I made a few suggestions on how to get Hamas on board. I was asked to convince the Hamas leadership that Trump was serious and wanted the war to end. Throughout the last months, I have been in contact with eight members of the Hamas leadership outside of Gaza. Three of them engaged with me in discussions. I did not make suggestions regarding the Israeli side because, for over a year, I believed that if President Trump decides that the war has to end, Trump will force Netanyahu into the agreement. That is exactly what happened.

There is a great deal of critical information we still don’t know. I have been in discussions regarding all of the issues, but I was not in Sharm El Sheikh, and I don’t know what has been decided and what still needs to be decided. But the most important thing at this time is the declaration by both sides that the war is over and it will not be renewed. The hostages and prisoners will be freed in the coming days. Israel will begin to withdraw.

Regarding the Hamas weapons, the discussions and proposals were that Hamas would turn over their weapons (those that can kill several people at the same time – not necessarily every rifle) to a new Palestinian security force, perhaps together with Egyptian support. Hamas would not surrender its weapons to Israel, but it could to a Palestinian security force. I don’t know what has been decided.

The new government in Gaza – this has to be a Palestinian government and not a neo-colonial mechanism that the Palestinians do not control. The names of independent Gazans with a public profile have been given to the Americans and also to other international and Arab players involved with the day after and the reconstruction of Gaza.

The names that Samer Sinijlawi and I submitted to these important players were Gazan civil society leaders with whom we met several times on Zoom. They drafted a letter to President Trump, which I delivered to Witkoff for the President, stating that they were willing to play a role in the governance of Gaza. We don’t know how this new government will be formed and when it will take over. As far back as last year, Hamas has agreed to this kind of government. We don’t know if Mahmoud Abbas will ask Dr. Nasser Elkidwa to play a role in the governance of Gaza – something that he has said he is ready to do.

We don’t know which Palestinian prisoners will be freed in the deal and where they will be freed to. The option of freeing and deporting those who are considered by Israel to be the most dangerous may have been agreed to – we don’t know yet. I put in a great deal of time and effort providing the Americans with information about Marwan Barghouthi. I sent the opinions of around 20 very prominent Israelis. Most were in favor of releasing Barghouthi, but some very significant Israelis were opposed. Those who were in favor spoke about the positive role Barghouthi could play in moving the conflict toward a renewed peace process. Those who were opposed believed that Barghouthi would not play that role.

To wrap up this initial response, President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Steve Witkoff is a dealmaker, and without Witkoff, none of this would have happened. Witkoff speaks for the President, and everyone knows it. Jared Kushner’s role at this point was crucial because, in the near future, Ron Dermer will be working for Kushner and not for Netanyahu. Bringing Kushner to the final round of negotiations was a brilliant move to neutralize Dermer’s defined role of foiling every chance of ending the war. The Turkish head of Intelligence is very close to Witkoff and to Hamas, and the Turkish intensive role was crucial in putting the pressure on Hamas to agree to the deal and not to walk away from the table.

At 2:00 am, all of the participants in the negotiations entered a large room with tables and chairs set up in a square. The Israeli delegation sat directly across from the Hamas delegation. This was the first time in history that official Israelis and officials from Hamas sat in the same room. The deal was signed and now we have to wait for its full implementation.

And now we can begin to breathe again.

(https://x.com/gershonbaskin)

• israel
• palestine
• gaza
• hamas
• donald trump
• benyamin netanyahu
• ceasefire