The conflict in Gaza continues

Even for Donald Trump, a president who revels in his place at the centre of world events, it was a dramatic moment.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted a televised meeting Trump was chairing in Washington DC on Wednesday. He handed over a message that the President needed to tell the world that they had a deal. Trump told the audience in the room – and millions more who have now seen the video – that he would have to leave.

“They’re going to need me…” he said, interrupting the day’s business. “I have to go now to try to solve some problems in the Middle East.”

Israel and Hamas signed off the first phase of what Donald Trump intends to be a wider agreement after three days of indirect talks in Egypt.

Mediators from Qatar and Egypt went between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators who were on separate floors of a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

To add heft to the talks, and to keep the pressure on the Israelis, Donald Trump sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his envoy Steve Witkoff.

The prime minister of Qatar and the intelligence chiefs of Egypt and Turkey were there to do the same job for the Hamas delegation.

The agreement is a major breakthrough. It does not mean the war is over. But for the first time since the Hamas attacks on Israel, there is a realistic chance of ending the horrors of the last two years.

The plan is that a ceasefire will be followed by the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, in return for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

The Israeli military, the IDF, will pull back from its current positions, leaving it in 53% of Gaza according to the government spokesperson.

Israel will lift enough of its restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza to allow in 400 lorry loads a day, which would be distributed by the UN and other agencies.

The controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the discredited system which Israel wanted to replace the UN, is not mentioned in Donald Trump’s 20-point plan.

The deal is a big step, but more need to be taken to get to the war’s end. Trump’s plan is a framework, with the details left to be negotiated. Serious obstacles lie ahead.

Hamas wants Israel out of the Gaza Strip. Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that will not happen. Hamas is prepared to give up heavy weapons but wants to keep some armaments. Netanyahu wants the complete demilitarisation of Gaza.

He has defined victory for Israel as more than simply the return of the hostages. He has said many times that Hamas must be destroyed, with no chance of regenerating itself in Gaza as a danger to Israelis.

In May 2024 President Joe Biden put a deal on the table that resembles Trump’s plan. Then, Hamas agreed that it would release Israeli hostages if the IDF pulled out of the Gaza Strip and there were guarantees that Israel would not restart the war. Netanyahu was not prepared to agree.

Over the past two years he has said repeatedly that continuing the war was the only way to get the hostages back and to destroy Hamas.

Perhaps the Biden plan was too early for both sides. The difference between what has happened now and what didn’t happen in May of last year is that Trump has used the leverage America has over Israel to bring Netanyahu to the table.

Despite expressing concern about Israel’s conduct of the war, Biden never threatened to end US diplomatic, financial and military support, with the exception of one consignment of 2,000 pound bombs. Israel could not have fought the war without US help. Biden was not prepared to exploit that dependence. Netanyahu was confident he could defy him.

Trump has kept up the military and political support, but he wants much more in return.

A crucial event that led to a breakthrough was Israel’s failed attempt to kill the Hamas leadership in Doha on 9 September.

Its main target, the senior leader Khalil al-Hayya and his top lieutenants were discussing the latest version of Trump’s peace plan when the attack happened.

They survived but his son was among the dead. Al Hayya is leading the Hamas delegation in Egypt.

The Israelis did not tell the Americans in advance that they were going to hit Doha. Trump was furious.

When Netanyahu asked to meet him in the Oval Office at the White House, he forced him to ring the Qatari prime minister to make a fulsome apology.

As Netanyahu read out the apology he had prepared, the cable from the…