Pressure from Trump helped the Gaza ceasefire deal come together – but will it hold?
Sky News’ Yalda Hakim was the first journalist to ask Qatar’s prime minister a question after his ceasefire announcement. She details how this historic day played out – and what could happen next.
It was an incredibly tense evening.
At about 6.30pm, we were asked to come to the foreign ministry in Doha, where the Qatari prime minister was due to address the world’s press.
The world’s media descended into one room but we were left waiting for up to three and a half hours – suddenly, there was a spanner in the works.
This one came from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he wanted tweaks and changes to the ceasefire agreement.
The room suddenly became incredibly quiet and tense. We knew how much was at stake.
The Qatari prime minister had been in his office from about midday, speaking to the various groups, who do not meet in the same room at the same time.
The prime minister was speaking to the Israelis and then with Hamas, as well as the Egyptians and Americans.
They shuffled between the groups to finalise the differences – ultimately though, it is very much the agreement from eight months ago: the Biden administration’s ceasefire deal.
But the question I put to the Qatari prime minister when he finally did emerge – alongside Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy – was whether pressure from the incoming Trump administration got the agreement over the line?
Frankly, the feeling here on the ground is that the Trump envoy put the kind of pressure on the Israelis and Netanyahu that the Biden administration was not able to do.
In just a few weeks, they’ve been to bring the Israelis round. And that includes this incredibly complex ceasefire agreement that will have multiple phases.
There is no one deluded enough, or under any kind of illusion, to think this ceasefire deal is set in stone. It could collapse at any point.
But it is clear that before Trump comes into office next week, all sides wanted to come to some kind of agreement.
Some Arab officials have even said Netanyahu wanted to almost gift this to Trump before his inauguration. It’s clear from all sides that the pressure mounting on them resulted in this deal.
The big question now is: can it hold?
It will feel like a long four days until Sunday, when the first phase of the ceasefire begins. And the airstrikes in Gaza are continuing.
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Gazan journalists, many of them now based in Doha, say they have told loved ones and other journalists to stay put and not move around too much. There could be an intensification of bombardments in the next few days, they’ve warned.
How do you hold all sides accountable and ensure what will be a very difficult few months doesn’t result in another escalation of violence – and the breakdown of the ceasefire?
The world will be watching.
