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The Israel-Hamas deal was made possible by 18-hour days and a “remarkable” partnership between Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s Mideast envoys — but even then it seemed it might come apart at the last minute.In the final four days of talks, Biden’s pointman Brett McGurk was joined in the region by Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, to get the deal over the line, US officials said.As they did so, Israeli and Hamas negotiators were huddling on separate floors of a building in the Qatari capital Doha, while moderators from Qatar and Egypt shuttled between them with their proposals.McGurk and Witkoff were talking “multiple times a day, and Mr Witkoff actually helped clinch down some of the details. There was great coordination,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN.A senior Biden administration official said that the unlikely pairing — there is little love lost between the outgoing and incoming presidents — had been a decisive factor in reaching a deal.”Four days ago, Steve Witkoff came out to join Brett in his final push, which I think is, historically, almost unprecedented. And it was a highly constructive, very fruitful partnership,” the official said on condition of anonymity.”It was really quite, quite remarkable, and I think speaks to what can be done in the country.”Veteran diplomat McGurk has served in a number of US administrations, including in Trump’s first term. Witkoff is a businessman and real estate expert but has jumped into the negotiations — even insisting that Netanyahu break the sabbath on Saturday for a meeting in his office as he pushed to seal the ceasefire.The cooperation between the two US administrations didn’t stop them battling over who should claim credit for a deal that had seemed out of reach for so many months.Trump said the “epic” win would never have happened without his election putting pressure for a deal, while Biden said “is that a joke?” when a reporter asked which of them should get credit.- ‘Breakthrough’ -But the fact that they worked together at all underscores how crucial a deal was viewed by both presidents.The seed was planted when Biden invited Trump to the Oval Office for a meeting eight days after the Republican’s election win in November, and their national security teams agreed to meet, the US official said.The knowledge that a new US administration would be starting on January 20 then galvanized the Israeli and Hamas sides alike.”In any breakthrough diplomacy, sometimes you need a deadline,” the official said. But another key factor was the dramatic strategic shift in the region in the last half of 2024 that isolated Hamas from its Iranian backers.Biden introduced the outline of the peace plan in May, but Washington had concluded that there would “never be a ceasefire” while Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar was still alive, and while Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah still opposed a deal, the Biden administration official said.Then, Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September, and Sinwar in October, while also taking out Iran’s air defenses. The fall of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in December was a further blow to Hamas.Negotiations intensified after McGurk returned to the region on January 5 — “18 hours a day, sometimes longer” — but sticking points between Israel and Hamas remained.The final 96 hours were the most intense of all. One of the biggest hang-ups were the “incredibly complicated” lists for the exchanges of hostages held by Hamas with Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. “All of that was not fully nailed down until the recent hours,” the senior Biden administration official said.Even then, nothing was agreed until everything was agreed.”I have to say, it wasn’t until this afternoon that we had full confidence that it’s going to come together.”Biden himself expressed relief that the deal was finally done.”At long last,” he said as he announced the deal at the White House.

Qatar and the United States announced Wednesday a ceasefire and hostage-release deal between Israel and Hamas, adding that they hoped it would pave the way for a permanent end to the war in Gaza.After mediators said a deal had been reached, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the “final details” were being worked on.Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday to thank them for their help securing the agreement, his office said.Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said the deal was the “right move” to bring back hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war.That attack, the deadliest in Israeli history, resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Israel’s ensuing campaign has destroyed much of Gaza, killing 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes after the agreement was announced.Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani told a press conference Wednesday that the “two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal”, adding that the ceasefire between them would take effect on Sunday.”We hope that this will be the last page of the war, and we hope that all parties will commit to implementing all the terms of this agreement,” he said.Biden, meanwhile, said he was “deeply satisfied this day has come”, calling the negotiations some of the “toughest” of his career.He added that an as-yet unfinalised second phase of the agreement would bring a “permanent end to the war”, saying he was “confident” the deal would hold.Demonstrators in Tel Aviv calling for the release of the hostages embraced as news of the agreement spread, while thousands across Gaza celebrated the reported deal.”I can’t believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we’ve lost everything,” said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old displaced from her home in Gaza City.Hamas said the ceasefire was the “result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip”.Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to cement an agreement.Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed said the three countries would monitor the implementation of the ceasefire via a body based in Cairo.During the initial 42-day ceasefire, 33 hostages would be released, he said, “including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children, elderly people, as well as civilian ill people and wounded”.Also in the first phase, Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza’s densely populated areas to allow for the exchanges, as well as “the return of the displaced people to their residences”, he said. The number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for the Israeli hostages in the second and third phases would be “finalised” during the initial 42 days, he said.- Trump hails deal -Biden said the deal would “surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.In his televised remarks, Israel’s Herzog said there was “no greater moral, human, Jewish, or Israeli obligation than to bring our sons and daughters back to us — whether to recover at home, or to be laid to rest”.Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.The agreement came after months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history, and days ahead of the inauguration of Biden’s successor Trump, who hailed the deal even before it was officially announced by the White House.Envoys from both Trump’s incoming administration and Biden’s outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.”This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November” in the US election, Trump said on social media.The president-elect added that his White House would “continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven”.But one far-right member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said ahead of a vote on the agreement that it was a “bad and dangerous deal for the security of the State of Israel”.- Aid needed -Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pointed to the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza as he welcomed news of the deal.Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera news outlet cited a security source as saying coordination was “underway” to reopen the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow the entry of aid.The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to take effect later this month, has said it will continue providing much-needed aid.UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini welcomed news of the deal in a post on X.”Many have been hoping for this moment for the past 15 months,” he said. “What’s needed is rapid, unhindered and uninterrupted humanitarian access and supplies to respond to the tremendous suffering caused by this war.”burs-ser/hmn

Crowds of Gazans chanted and embraced on Wednesday as news spread that a ceasefire and hostage release deal had been reached between Israel and Hamas aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in the Palestinian territory.After a US official and a source close to the negotiations first revealed the agreement, Israel cautioned that several points “remain unresolved” that it hoped would be addressed.But celebrations were already underway in Gaza, where AFP journalists saw crowds of people hugging and taking photos to mark the announcement.”I can’t believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we’ve lost everything,” said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old who was displaced from Gaza City to the Nuseirat Camp in the centre of the territory.”We need a lot of rest. As soon as the truce begins, I will go to the cemetery to visit my brother and family members. We buried them in Deir el-Balah cemetery without proper graves. We will build them new graves and write their names on them.”- Drums and chants -Outside Deir al-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where so many of the war’s casualties have been taken, hundreds of Palestinians gathered to chant, sing and wave flags, AFPTV footage showed.At one point, a member of the crowd and a journalist in body armour were raised on people’s shoulders to conduct an interview above the mass of elated Gazans.As an ambulance squeezed through the crowd to reach the hospital, smiling men and women alike chanted “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is greatest” in Arabic, and waved the Palestinian flag.Young children, some looking confused by the commotion, gathered outside the hospital too, milling between adults and watching as they gave interviews to the waiting media.A gaggle of young boys in the centre of the crowd led a popular pro-resistance chant as adults filmed the moment on their phones.Large crowds also gathered in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza, with young men surfing through the crowd on the shoulders of others beating drums and cheering, an AFP photographer saw.In one part of the city, the crowd cheered as a vehicle driven by Palestinian militants slowly wound through the streets, with fighters standing in its open sliding doors waving their AK-47s.- Bittersweet -In Gaza City, 27-year-old Abdul Karim said: “I feel joy despite everything we’ve lost.””I can’t believe I will finally see my wife and two children again,” he added. “They left for the south almost a year ago. I hope they allow the displaced to return quickly.”Still wearing his scrubs, doctor Fadel Naeem told AFP he had mixed feelings — both “sadness for those we lost”, and “indescribable joy for the end of this massacre”.In the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, some residents handed out sweets and hugged each other in the main square, though no large crowds gathered Wednesday night.Omar Assaf, a Ramallah resident, told AFP from Al-Manara Square that he saw the deal as a victory for Palestinians.”After 15 months of destruction, killing, genocide and unprecedented crimes, the resistance stands tall, raising its head, and raising the head of the entire Palestinian people,” he told AFP.The deal agreed on Wednesday is expected to halt the fighting in the devastated Palestinian territory for an initial 42 days, with 33 hostages held in Gaza released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.Hamas sparked the war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage during the attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.bur-az-dcp-lba/smw

Stock markets surged on Wednesday, buoyed by robust US bank earnings and encouraging inflation data from the United States and Britain.Wall Street’s three main indexes closed sharply higher after US financial titans Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock and others posted stellar quarterly results.Fresh data published earlier Wednesday showed headline inflation in the Untied States accelerated …

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The United States unveiled further export controls Wednesday on advanced computing semiconductors, increasing due diligence requirements for businesses as it seeks to prevent diversion of tech to China despite existing restrictions.The move — part of a series of actions before President Joe Biden leaves office — comes days after US officials announced fresh curbs on AI …

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More than 19.5 million people in Yemen will need assistance in 2025, a senior UN official said Wednesday, expressing concern over a worsening humanitarian crisis and for children suffering from malnutrition.”People in Yemen continue to face a severe humanitarian and protection crisis,” said Joyce Msuya, interim chief of the United Nations’ humanitarian agency (OCHA).And the crisis will only get worse, she added, citing the organization’s forthcoming consolidated humanitarian appeal for 2025.Around 17 million people — nearly half the country’s population — cannot meet their basic food needs, Msuya said.”At least 19.5 million people in Yemen need humanitarian assistance and protection this year — 1.3 million more than in 2024,” she said.On top of this, an estimated 4.8 million people remain internally displaced, the majority of whom are women and children.Nearly half of children under five years old suffer from moderate to severe stunting caused by malnutrition, while the country’s stressed health system is overburdened by “appalling levels” of cholera.Hans Grundberg, the United Nations special envoy for Yemen, who just visited the capital Sanaa that is controlled by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels, stressed the need for “immediate de-escalation and genuine engagement for peace.””The need to address Yemen’s crisis becomes ever more urgent as regional stability requires, in part, achieving peace in Yemen,” he said.Yemen has been at war since 2014, when the Huthis forced the internationally recognized government out of Sanaa. The rebels have also seized population centers in the north.In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition intervened to prop up the beleaguered government.A UN-brokered ceasefire in April 2022 calmed fighting and in December 2023 the warring parties committed to a peace process.But tensions have surged during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as the Huthis struck Israeli targets and international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, in a campaign the rebels say is in solidarity with Palestinians.

Qatar’s prime minister announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed Wednesday to a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza, adding he hoped the deal would pave the way for a permanent end to the fighting.After mediators earlier said a deal had been reached, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned that some issues in the framework remained “unresolved”, though it hoped the “details will be finalised tonight”.Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, said the deal was the “right move” to bring back hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war.Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani told a press conference that the ceasefire would take effect on Sunday.”The two belligerents in the Gaza Strip have reached a deal on the prisoner and the hostage swap, and (the mediators) announce a ceasefire in the hopes of reaching a permanent ceasefire between the two sides,” he said.The first phase of the deal would see Hamas release 33 captives, he added, “including civilian women and female recruits, as well as children (and) elderly people… in return for a number of prisoners who are being held in Israeli prisons”. Demonstrators in Tel Aviv calling for the release of the hostages embraced as news of the agreement spread, while thousands across Gaza celebrated the deal to halt the hostilities that have devastated much of the Palestinian territory.”I can’t believe that this nightmare of more than a year is finally coming to an end. We have lost so many people, we’ve lost everything,” said Randa Sameeh, a 45-year-old displaced from Gaza City to the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.Hamas said the ceasefire was the “result of the legendary steadfastness of our great Palestinian people and our valiant resistance in the Gaza Strip for over 15 months”.Pressure to put an end to the fighting had ratcheted up in recent days, as mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States intensified efforts to cement an agreement.On Wednesday, Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed said the three countries would monitor the implementation of the ceasefire via a body based in Cairo.- Trump hails ‘EPIC’ deal -US President Joe Biden said he was “thrilled” at the development, adding the deal would “halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families”.The agreement came after months of failed bids to end the deadliest war in Gaza’s history, and days ahead of the inauguration of Biden’s successor Donald Trump, who hailed the deal even before it was officially announced by the White House.Trump had warned Hamas of “hell to pay” if it did not free the remaining captives before he took office, and envoys from both his incoming administration and Biden’s outgoing one had been present at the latest negotiations.”This EPIC ceasefire agreement could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November,” Trump said on social media.The president-elect added that his White House would “continue to work closely with Israel and our Allies to make sure Gaza NEVER again becomes a terrorist safe haven”.Hamas sparked the war in Gaza by staging the deadliest-ever attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.Palestinian militants also took 251 people hostage during the attack, 94 of whom are still being held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza has killed 46,707 people, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.- Aid needed -Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi pointed to the “importance of accelerating the entry of urgent humanitarian aid” into Gaza, as he welcomed news of the deal.Egypt’s state-linked Al-Qahera news outlet cited a security source as saying coordination was “underway” to reopen the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s border with Egypt to allow the entry of international aid.The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper also reported that talks were underway to open the crossing.Among the sticking points in successive rounds of talks had been disagreements over the permanence of any ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the scale of humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.The UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, facing an Israeli ban on its activities set to take effect later this month, said it will continue providing much-needed aid.Netanyahu, who vowed to crush Hamas in retaliation for the October 7 attack, has opposed any post-war role for the militant group in the territory.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday Israel would ultimately “have to accept reuniting Gaza and the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed” Palestinian Authority, and embrace a “path toward forming an independent Palestinian state”.He added that the “best incentive” to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace remained the prospect of normalisation between Israel and Saudi Arabia.Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa, speaking in Oslo, said the latest push for a Gaza ceasefire showed international pressure on Israel “does pay off”.The October 7 attack on communities in southern Israel sparked uproar around the world, as did the scale of the suffering in Gaza from the retaliatory war.World powers and international organisations have for months pushed for a ceasefire, which up until Wednesday had remained elusive.

US President Joe Biden announced Wednesday a “full and complete” ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the first part of their peace accord, and said he had acted as “one team” with incoming leader Donald Trump.Speaking at the White House just days before he leaves office, a visibly relieved Biden said the negotiations to halt the Gaza conflict had been some of the “toughest” of his career.”I’m deeply satisfied this day has come, finally come,” Biden said in a televised statement.A number of Americans would be among the hostages who would be released by Palestinian militants in Gaza, he added.The first phase of the deal would last six weeks and include a “full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages held by Hamas,” Biden said.The as yet unfinalized second phase would bring a “permanent end to the war,” the 82-year-old Democrat said, adding he was “confident” the deal would hold.Biden’s administration has been criticized for its channeling of military aid to Israel during its offensive in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.But he said pressure on Hamas and its Iranian backers had helped push through a truce, adding that the deal now agreed was the “exact” same as one he had proposed in May.Biden, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile said his administration had been working as “one team” with Trump’s ahead of the Republican starting his second term as president on January 20.”In these past few days, we’ve been speaking as one team,” said Biden, noting that most of the implementation of the deal would be under a Trump White House.”I told my team to coordinate close with the incoming team to make sure we’re all speaking with the same voice — because that’s what American presidents do.”Trump earlier claimed credit for the “epic” deal, in posts on social media. His Mideast envoy was involved in the talks and consulted with the White House.Asked by a reporter whether he or Trump was mainly responsible for the deal, Biden replied: “Is that a joke?”