Aides to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were surprised by a call from Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steven Witkoff.

A call from Doha, Qatar, last Friday evening. Sabbath The meeting has already begun, with Vitkov announcing that he will travel to Israel and meet with Netanyahu. Witkov, a 67-year-old billionaire lawyer and real estate developer, rejected a suggestion by Netanyahu aides that they could meet after the Jewish day of rest. He brusquely insisted that they meet in the morning.

Vitkov delivered his message in what some Israeli media described as a "tense meeting." The president-elect has stressed his hope for a hostage ceasefire. Trump wants the war in Gaza to end. He had other fish to fry.

A senior Israeli government official told Channel 14, considered a Netanyahu mouthpiece, “What happened was that Witkov delivered a stern message from the incoming U.S. president, who had clearly demanded this be done. agreement.”

Nadav Eyal, writing this week in the newspaper Izvestia, summed up the situation facing the Israeli prime minister and his closest aides. "Netanyahu...suddenly realized where they stood with the new US president. They gradually realized that Trump was speaking at a dictation pace and they could never outflank him from the right. Trump wanted to again Come to an agreement."

Witkoff isn't the only one working to reach a deal. Over the weekend and into this week, current U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and senior figures from Egypt, Turkey and the Gulf region - all mediators in the long-running negotiations - worked to increase pressure on Israel and Hamas ends talks.

Turkish intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin spoke to members of Hamas's politburo on Monday to put pressure on Ankara.

The issue, which has been a thorn in the side for months, especially with Netanyahu withdrawing from a deal he himself had pushed for earlier this year, is suddenly up for negotiation.

Despite growing optimism that the two sides are moving quickly to reach a deal, the days since Vitkov's meeting with Netanyahu have seen a series of crises over the details, including claims that a deal could be reached in the final hours. This was preceded by drills and conflicting information.

By Wednesday afternoon, however, there were every indication that a deal was imminent, as Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced that he would fly back to Israel from a trip abroad in order to vote on the deal.

On Wednesday, Trump himself was scrambling to weigh in on Truth Social.

He wrote: “This epic ceasefire is only possible if we achieve a historic victory in November, because it signals to the world that my administration will seek peace and negotiate deals that ensure all U.S. the safety of our people and our allies."

"I am pleased that the American and Israeli hostages will return home to their families and loved ones."

The deal is thought to include a three-phase deal - based on a framework originally proposed by Biden, endorsed by the UN Security Council and endorsed by Netanyahu himself in 2024 (but quickly withdrawn).

It provides for the release within six weeks of 33 hostages, including women, children, the elderly and injured civilians, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian women and children who may be imprisoned by Israel.

The 33 include five female Israeli soldiers, each of whom will be released in exchange for 50 Palestinian prisoners, including 30 militants serving life sentences. By the end of the first phase, all captured civilians - living or dead - will be released.

Crucially, the agreement was intended to provide an initial six-week ceasefire while opening the way for further negotiations aimed at ending the war once and for all.

It is unclear exactly when and how many displaced Palestinians will be able to return home, or whether the deal will lead to a complete end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza - a key demand for Hamas to release remaining captives.

The deal has emerged - if it holds up - as a way for both parties to save face. Netanyahu vowed to fight until a "total" - if ill-defined and unachievable - victory, pledging to release live hostages as well as the bodies of women, children and sick people in a so-called humanitarian category, moving him closer to widespread victory. Most Israelis believe the hostage deal should be a priority.

For Hamas, Israel's concessions in withdrawing from buffer zones such as the Nezarim Corridor and agreeing to the return of civilians to northern Gaza, albeit only after screening, are closer to their own highest position, which is only possible with an end to the fighting Comprehensive Agreement and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. However, there are still plenty of gray areas and unresolved questions between the two.

Given the shape of the deal, one of Netanyahu's most pressing questions is why he didn't accept a similar deal as early as May 2024.

Netanyahu’s willingness to make last-minute compromises under pressure from Trump — and in defiance of far-right members of his coalition, including Itamar Ben Gvir — has not gone unnoticed by Israeli commentators. and Bezalel Smotrich.

"I asked myself, where have all the obstacles gone?" Ben Caspit wrote in the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv. “All the conditions? All the ridiculous spins thrown out by the leader and echoed through his mouthpiece?

“What about the Philadelphia corridor (border with Egypt)? All the obstacles that arose during the decisive moments of the negotiations, all the statements made, including several during Shabbat, were about how Israel will never leave, never stop, never Not surrendering and never surrendering?”

While Netanyahu faces pressure from incoming and outgoing U.S. presidents, he also sees his political environment changing, opening the way for more flexibility.

Israel's relative success in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and against Iran's "axis of resistance" more broadly - even if many Israelis do not see the expected return from displacement to the north of the country - provides a measure of Need breathing time to talk.

The hard calculations of Netanyahu's far-right coalition have also changed, especially with the return of former Likud rival Gideon Sa'ar and his faction in September, weakening Ben Gvir and the far-right coalition. Right-wing influence.

Ben Gwell himself seemed to accept the inevitable, boasting to his voters on X that his party had blocked a deal on several previous occasions.

All of this complicates life for Netanyahu's surrogates, who have previously trumpeted the Israeli prime minister's resolve and how friendly Trump is to Israel.

“The pressure that Trump is applying now is not what Israel expected,” right-wing commentator Jacob Bardugo lamented on Channel 14 on Monday. "Stress is the problem."

While Netanyahu has historically been able to use the threat of White House pressure as a public get-out-of-jail-free card, it’s unclear — given all the risks inherent in his deals — whether that will be the case this time.