© Reuters. Certainly one of Qatar’s lead negotiators Abdullah Al Sulaiti (R) works inside an operation room set as much as coordinate the truce and launch of hostages between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, on the Nationwide Command Centre in Doha, Qatar November
By Andrew Mills
DOHA (Reuters) – As world leaders feted Qatar for brokering a truce between Israel and Hamas final week, its negotiators doubled down on their mediation efforts, fearful the ceasefire was about to break down earlier than it began.
The truce and the settlement for accompanying prisoner and hostage exchanges had been loosely worded. The tiny Gulf state’s negotiators knew Israel and Hamas had but to agree on when, or how, the ceasefire and the swap would start, in response to sources in Qatar, the Palestinian Territories and Egypt conversant in the high-stakes talks.
It was essential to make clear all of the factors within the settlement and ensure they meant the identical factor to Israel and Hamas, a supply briefed on the negotiations mentioned.
For instance, the Israeli aspect had pledged to “park” tanks it was utilizing contained in the Gaza strip, however no person had agreed on what that meant on the bottom, mentioned the supply, who requested to not be named due to the delicate nature of the talks.
Certainly one of Qatar’s lead negotiators, profession diplomat Abdullah Al Sulaiti, was anxious. “I thought we were going to lose it and that the agreement wouldn’t fly,” he mentioned in an interview.
To stay centered, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had cleared his agenda, cancelling deliberate journeys to Moscow and London, the supply briefed on the negotiations mentioned.
Inside one in all his Doha workplaces on the afternoon of Wednesday, Nov. 22, Sheikh Mohammed kicked off a brand new spherical of negotiations simply hours after the truce had been unveiled, the supply mentioned.
Within the prime minister’s principal assembly had been the Mossad chief, David Barnea, who had flown in from Israel for at the very least the third time because the starting of the struggle, and a delegation of Egyptian intelligence officers. The Qataris used a separate room to name Hamas delegates who had remained of their villa workplace throughout city, the supply mentioned.
Qatar’s international ministry advised reporters that Hamas and Israel negotiated in Doha till “the early morning” of Nov. 23 and agreed on a plan to implement the truce deal the following day.
This account reveals particulars of that essential assembly, which ran for 9 hours and is described right here for the primary time. It additionally presents a glimpse of the muscular strategy utilized by Qatar to speed up shuttle-style talks between what one official concerned within the negotiations referred to as “two parties that have zero level of confidence in each other.”
Qatar’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs, the U.S. Division of State and the Hamas political workplace in Doha didn’t reply to detailed questions for this text. The workplace of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which oversees Mossad, declined to remark.
NOT “POSTMEN”
As a substitute of merely passing on messages from one aspect to the opposite, the Qataris’ strategy to mediation is to be proactive and throw their weight into negotiations, in response to a U.S. official conversant in the matter and Egyptian safety sources.
Doha had already used such ways to push for options to shut the gaps in calls for between Israel and Hamas, notably when negotiators tackled the delicate concern of hostages forward of the primary truce announcement, the U.S. official mentioned.
At the beginning, the Netanyahu administration mentioned it could not swap Palestinian prisoners held in Israel for hostages held in Gaza. Hamas, which in 2011 had obtained the liberation of greater than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel in alternate for the discharge of 1 Israeli soldier, made excessive calls for, individuals conversant in the negotiations mentioned.
The 2 sides finally agreed on a ratio of three Palestinian prisoners for every civilian hostage.
The important thing, the Qatari official concerned within the negotiations mentioned, was to amend what was being proposed by one aspect till it turned acceptable by the opposite.
“We say ‘Listen, let’s have a second round of discussions with you before we send the proposal,'” he mentioned, talking on the situation of anonymity.
“If we decided to be like postmen and deliver letters only, I doubt that we would have finished this agreement.”
On Nov. 22, Qatari emissaries labored the telephones and moved forwards and backwards between totally different rooms, the supply briefed on the negotiations mentioned.
Qatari negotiators shepherded Israel and Hamas to agree on precisely the place in Gaza Israeli tanks could be stationed in the course of the truce. Equally, they brokered an settlement on how Israeli troopers would meet a Hamas demand to vacate Gaza hospitals, together with Al Shifa, the place they’d taken positions, the supply mentioned.
The negotiators, a few of whom have been concerned in Israel-Hamas mediations since 2014, additionally wanted to work out an important factor: a safeguard mechanism designed to make sure that any small breach within the ceasefire wouldn’t trigger it to break down, he mentioned.
They managed to get either side to log off on particular procedures they must comply with within the occasion of an incident, reviewing detailed situations equivalent to gunfire or tank actions, he mentioned.
The mechanism was activated shortly after the truce got here into power, when Israeli troopers opened hearth on Palestinians making an attempt to maneuver to northern Gaza, the supply mentioned.
About 5 hours into the assembly, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani spoke on the cellphone with U.S. President Joe Biden and mentioned the deal’s implementation, in response to the White Home readout of the decision.
After the marathon session was over some hours later, Qatar’s international ministry introduced the truce would come into power on Friday, Nov. 24 at 7 a.m. in Gaza.
GO-TO MEDIATOR
As one of many only a few international locations with an open line of communication to each Israel and Hamas, gas-rich Qatar has emerged because the lead go-to negotiator within the weeks-long struggle that started with Hamas assault on Oct. 7. Along with the U.S., Russia has additionally praised the position of its “Qatari friends.”
Qatar’s mediation has additionally elicited criticism within the West, with some U.S. and European politicians accusing the Gulf state of supporting a gaggle, Hamas, they regard as a terrorist group.
The ambivalence was on full show when Sheikh Tamim landed in Berlin final month: “State visit by the blood emir,” mentioned an Oct. 12 banner headline on German newspaper Bild.
Qatari officers say they started internet hosting Hamas representatives in Doha in 2012 at Washington’s request, when the Palestinian militants’ political workplace was ousted from Syria. Israel vets all monetary transfers Qatar makes to Palestinians in Gaza, Qatari sources have mentioned.
Qatar’s private connection to the militant group’s key figures is maybe a very powerful issue behind Qatar’s skill to successfully negotiate on this battle, mentioned Mehran Kamrava, professor of presidency at Georgetown College in Qatar.
“They say, ‘Look. We’ve provided an office and logistical support at tremendous reputational cost…We were the only ones who were there for you when you needed us and now is the time when you need to return the favour,'” he mentioned.
Regardless of proximity to Hamas officers, Qatari negotiators didn’t communicate on to the group’s leaders in Gaza, however by way of its representatives primarily based in Doha. The communication chain broke a number of instances, at one level for 2 full consecutive days, in the course of the month and a half of intense preventing that preceded the Nov. 24 truce, due to energy outage or Israeli shutdown, the supply briefed on the talks mentioned.
Mossad usually performs a diplomatic position in Israel’s dealings with Qatar, as a result of the 2 international locations wouldn’t have formal diplomatic relations, a scenario that one Western supply within the Gulf mentioned additionally slowed the method.
Netanyahu has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which guidelines Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 individuals and took 240 hostages.
In response, Israel bombarded the territory for seven weeks and killed greater than 15,000 Palestinians, in response to well being authorities within the coastal strip.
Because the pause in preventing started, round 100 hostages have been launched from Gaza, together with non-Israelis. Israel has launched at the very least 210 Palestinians from its jails and allowed reduction organizations to extend shipments of humanitarian assist and gas to Gaza.
However after seven days of truce, hostilities might resume as quickly as Friday except one other extension is agreed.
Talking to Reuters days after the ceasefire began, Al Sulaiti, the Qatari mediator, mentioned the work was removed from over.
“At the beginning I thought achieving an agreement would be the most difficult step,” mentioned the civil servant who has been concerned in Israel-Hamas mediations since 2014. “I’ve discovered that sustaining the agreement itself is equally challenging.”
