How the Gaza ceasefire agreement united the Biden and Trump teams

When President-elect Donald J. Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday to press him for a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, there was someone on the speakerphone: Brett McGurk, Biden’s chief negotiator in Middle East for a long time.

Mr. McGurk was in Doha, Qatar, to lead the latest round of ceasefire negotiations.

It was a vivid example of cooperation between two men who were bitter political rivals. Rarely have teams of incumbent and incoming presidents from different parties worked together at such a high-stakes moment, when the fate of American lives and the future of a devastating war hung in the balance.

Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden have publicly claimed credit for the hack.

“This epic ceasefire agreement could only happen as a result of our historic victory in November,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site even before that. The deal has been officially announced In the Middle East.

At the White House, Biden told reporters that his administration had worked tirelessly for months to convince both sides to stop fighting. He called it “one of the most difficult negotiations I have ever witnessed” and praised “an exceptional team of American diplomats who worked nonstop for months to get this done.”

As he left the room, a reporter asked Mr. Biden: “Who gets the credit for this, Mr. President, you or Trump?” Mr. Biden stopped, turned and smiled.

“Is this a joke?” he asked.

But despite the tension between the incumbent and the incoming president, their representatives in the Middle East described a cooperative working relationship in the weeks after Election Day.

“Brett is at the forefront,” Mr. Witkoff said last week at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s club in Florida, describing the working relationship. Both camps considered that description accurate, even if it did not match what Mr. Trump had said moments earlier in one of several statements in which he described his negotiators as critical players.

In fact, Mr. Trump threatened to do so “All hell” will break loose If an agreement is not reached before his inauguration on Monday, this may have helped motivate the Hamas leadership to make final decisions. But people familiar with the negotiations said Wednesday’s announcement of an agreement to temporarily end hostilities in Gaza was the result of months of work by Mr. McGurk in the Middle East, culminating in several weeks of carefully coordinated efforts by Mr. Witkoff.

Mr. Witkoff, 67, an outspoken real estate investor from the Bronx, settled in Qatar largely for negotiations, knowing that whatever Mr. McGurk negotiated, he would have to implement. In fact, the 33 hostages to be released under the ceasefire agreement may not gain freedom until Inauguration Day or after. The ceasefire is scheduled to end after six weeks, unless the second phase of the agreement is activated.

The aim behind this was to send a unified message that the fighting must end and that the hostages held by Hamas must be released. One person familiar with the negotiations, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the discussions, said that Mr. McGurk was more involved in crafting the details of the agreement, while Mr. Witkoff’s role was to make clear that Mr. Trump wanted a deal by the time of his inauguration.

The president-elect has also set some early standards in his dealings with Mr. Netanyahu — who, for all his support for Mr. Trump in the election, was seen by the Trump camp as stalling on a deal. Mr. Witkopf flew to Israel from Doha on Saturday — despite it being Saturday — to underscore the message that Mr. Netanyahu should get on the plane.

Mr. Witkopf’s work, including meeting with Mr. Netanyahu, helped Mr. McGurk and the Biden administration put pressure on both sides during the negotiations, according to the person familiar with the talks.

In a press statement issued Wednesday afternoon after the ceasefire agreement was announced, Mr. Netanyahu praised Mr. Trump, thanking him for “his help in advancing the hostage release and for helping Israel put an end to the suffering of dozens of civilians.” The hostages and their families.”

Mr. Biden was only mentioned in the last line of the statement, saying that the prime minister “also thanked him for his help in moving the hostage deal forward.”

It was not at all clear in the days after Mr. Trump won a second term that the Trump and Biden teams could cooperate. The relationship was further affected by the Trump team’s determination to get rid of employees working in the White House and the Biden team’s issuance of last-minute orders to besiege the new administration.

In his remarks Wednesday, Biden acknowledged a certain level of cooperation and respect among their aides.

“This deal was developed and negotiated under my administration, but its terms will be implemented mostly by the next administration,” Biden told reporters. “For the past few days, we’ve been talking as a team.”

But he did not give Mr. Trump more credit for aiding the effort. For his part, the president-elect said that he was “pleased” with the release of the American hostages, but he did not mention Mr. Biden or the work of the current administration.

“We have accomplished so much even without being in the White House,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Just imagine all the wonderful things that will happen when I get back.”

Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff began meeting on the ceasefire agreement shortly after Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump spoke for two hours in the Oval Office two days after Mr. Trump won the election, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.

Mr. McGurk regularly informed Mr. Witkoff of progress in negotiations in the Middle East, and invited Mr. Witkoff to join him in Doha for the final round of negotiations over the past week, that person said. It was an “incredibly efficient” process.

Biden administration officials said they believe the momentum for an agreement began when Biden helped broker a separate agreement to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. This isolated Hamas and helped convince the group that a ceasefire was in its interest, according to Biden officials.

But one person close to the talks acknowledged that the cooperation between Mr. McGurk and Mr. Witkoff was proof of what can be achieved when political differences are put aside – if only temporarily.