While many are praising US President Donald Trump and his administration for the deal, a senior member of Israel’s hostage team says the key to the success of talks in Sharm el-Sheikh was a “brilliant diplomatic plan prepared by Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] and [Strategic Affairs Minister Ron] Dermer in cooperation with the US.”
The source adds that the plan “included the Arab and Muslim countries.”
According to the official, during a September 2024 trip to Washington, DC, by senior members of the team, negotiators and members of Netanyahu’s office began working with the US — initially under the Joe Biden Administration — on a plan offering safe passage to exile for Hamas leaders and an end to the war in exchange for the release of all the hostage, demilitarization, and the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip.
“This is more than a year’s work,” says the official.
“This, along with the military pressure, turned the screws on Hamas,” says the official.
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