Despite sporadic outbreaks of hostilities in Gaza, the fragile ceasefire signed by Israel and Hamas on Oct. 9 so far appears to be holding. The deal was reached after weeks of high-pressure diplomacy by U.S. President Donald Trump. But behind the scenes lay a sophisticated multiparty mediation architecture in which Qatar played a central role—one that reflects the small Gulf state's emergence as a leading global mediator over the past two decades.
U.S. leverage over Israel proved critical to securing the October agreement, but Qatar and Egypt—with Turkey joining later—provided the essential mediation infrastructure: maintaining direct channels with Hamas, conducting shuttle diplomacy and applying sustained pressure on the militant group. The Gaza peace summit in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh coalesced international support for Trump's deal, but multiple security and governance issues have yet to be hammered out as the process moves into phase two. Hamas remains reticent to fully disarm and will only hand its weapons over to a legitimate Palestinian body. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has said Hamas is open to discussing how to guarantee it would no longer pose a threat to Israel, but so far, the mediators have deliberately postponed disarmament talks to avoid derailing the current ceasefire phase.
Sustained diplomatic engagement is needed to keep the implementation and monitoring of the deal on track, as it could still be derailed by further flare-ups in fighting, clashes between Hamas and rival militant groups, or localized resistance to the agreement. Qatar will likely continue to play a role over the coming weeks and months, precisely because it is one of the only actors capable of directly communicating with Hamas while bringing financial leverage to bear on the militant group....