This article was first published as World Affairs Briefing from The Conversation UK. Click here to receive this newsletter every Thursday, direct to your inbox.
Waiting for news this week of whether a ceasefire deal between Hamas and the Israeli government must have been agonising for the people of Gaza and for the families of hostages taken in the attack of October 7. All week the talk was that a deal was in the very final stages of negotiation. It would be soon, we were told.
By Wednesday morning, the BBC was reporting that negotiators from Israel and Hamas were “in the same building for the first time” as the final details were ironed out. That afternoon, the Qatari government in Doha, where negotiations have been based these past 15 months, announced that the prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed al-Thani, would hold a press conference. It was on.
