[Photo Credit: Reuters]

Hamas has called Donald Trump a racist, a “recipe for chaos” and a man with an absurd vision for Gaza.

But one extraordinary phone call last month helped persuade Hamas that the U.S. president might be able to hold Israel to a peace deal even if the group surrendered all the hostages that give it leverage in the war in Gaza, two Palestinian officials said.

In the call, widely publicised at the time, Trump put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone after a meeting at the White House in September, to apologise to Qatar’s prime minister for an Israeli strike on a residential complex that housed Hamas’ political leaders in the emirate’s capital Doha.

Trump’s handling of the Qatar bombing, which failed to kill the Hamas officials it targeted, including lead negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, gave the group more faith that he was able to stand up to Netanyahu and that he was serious about ending the war in Gaza, the two officials said.

Now, after signing up to a Trump-brokered ceasefire on Wednesday, the militant group has put further faith in the word of a man who only this year proposed expelling Palestinians from Gaza and rebuilding it as a U.S.-controlled beach resort.

Under the deal, which took effect on Friday, Hamas agreed to give up its hostages without an agreement on full Israeli withdrawal. Two other Palestinian officials, from Hamas, acknowledged that was a risky gamble which relies on the U.S. president being so invested in the deal he will not let it fail.

Hamas leaders are well aware their gamble could backfire, one of the Hamas officials said. They fear that once the hostages are released, Israel could resume its military campaign, as happened after a January ceasefire that Trump’s team had also been closely involved in.

However, gathered for indirect talks with Israel in a conference centre in the Sharm el-Sheikh Red Sea resort, Hamas was reassured enough by the presence of Trump’s closest confidants and regional heavy-weights to sign up to the ceasefire even though it leaves many of the group’s core demands unresolved, including moves towards a Palestinian state

Trump’s eagerness was felt “heavily” in the conference centre, one of the Hamas officials told Reuters. Trump personally called three times during the marathon session, a senior U.S. official said, with his son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff shuttling between Israeli and Qatari negotiators

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