The thought of Hamas publicly thanking Donald Trump for his peacemaking efforts would have been impossible to imagine just days ago.
This, after all, is the president who vowed “all Hell” would be unleashed on Hamas if the hostages weren’t returned.
And yet, in an exclusive interview with Hamas’s senior leader Dr Basem Naim, that’s exactly what happened.
“Without the personal interference of President Trump in this case, I don’t think that it would happen to reach this end, the end of the war,” Dr Naim told me.
“Therefore, yes, we thank President Trump and his personal efforts to interfere and to pressure Israel to make an end of this massacre and slaughtering.”
He was speaking from his office in Doha, where last month he and a group of Hamas leaders, meeting to discuss Trump’s plan, were targeted in an Israeli air strike.
He survived the attack, and in the days that followed, international condemnation seems to have helped build momentum towards the ceasefire deal finally being reached.
Serious pressure
This is the unpredictable, and frankly unbelievable, world of global politics right now: A Hamas leader, who narrowly escaped assassination just weeks ago, telling me he believes Donald Trump is the key man to ensure Israel sticks to the ceasefire agreement.
Let’s be clear: Hamas is under serious pressure.
It is facing calls to step away from governing Gaza and disarming altogether, not just from Israel and the US but regional powers as well.
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Could Gaza ceasefire lead to a much bigger peace?
Gaza needs an enormous amount of aid, investment and reconstruction.
A humanitarian catastrophe which has killed 67,000 Gazans, destroyed or damaged 90% of people’s homes and forced 1.2 million people to become displaced.
The message from major international powers is that their long-term commitment will require a new ruling force in the strip.
Dr Naim told me the organisation was willing to cede political control but rejected calls to lay down their arms until a comprehensive agreement was reached.
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Hamas statement on peace deal
“We are ready to hand over government, we are ready to be totally away from any government or government body but when it comes to Hamas as an entity, as a Palestinian liberation movement, I think no one can overcome or exclude Hamas,” he said. “Our weapons are only going to be handed over only to the hands of a Palestinian state and our fighters will be integrated into a Palestinian national army.
“Before that, no one has the right to deny us the right to resist the occupation by all means.”
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The negotiators of Wednesday’s deal in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh may choose to ignore those comments for the time being.
Displaced Palestinians begin to head to what is left of their homes in southern Gaza Strip. Pic: AP
There is, after all, undeniable relief that the fighting has finally stopped, the hostages will be released and 2 million Gazans can sleep safely without the fear of Israeli bombardment.
But for the next phase of this deal to be realised, it will need clear answers as to who runs Gaza?
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Donald Trump and his team believe former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair will have some role to play, something the Hamas official was quick to dismiss.
Sir Tony Blair ‘not welcome’. Filepic: Reuters
“To be honest, when I hear the name Tony Blair, I can see this could be Balfour Declaration 2… I think all Palestinians, not only in Hamas, not only in Gaza, have very bad, and very negative image of him.
“And I do not believe that he will be very welcome.”
There will be many who read his comments as proof the organisation has no intention of relinquishing control of Gaza.
Hamas itself may feel some sense of achievement that it was the only representative of the Palestinian political factions involved in the negotiations earlier this week.
But the key question now is, who will be responsible for the governance of Gaza and the daunting security challenges that millions are facing.
This story originally appeared on Skynews
