INSIDE STORY: the Israeli mediator who engaged Hamas and won over Witkoff

Behind the national leaders at the signing table in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday were the mediators and back channel operators who made it possible.

Among them was Gershon Baskin, a self-styled Israeli mediator and activist who has gained the ear of US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

When he spoke to The Jewish Independent on Wednesday, Baskin was cautious about celebrating. “There are going to be troubles all over the place,” he said, after the ceasefire was frayed by Hamas’s failures in returning bodies of hostages and the IDF’s killing of five Palestinians, something largely ignored in the Israeli media. The army said several Palestinians had crossed into an off-limits area and that after attempts were made to distance them, “troops opened fire to remove the threat”.

Baskin is concerned that non-repatriation of corpses by Hamas could turn Israelis against the ceasefire. “I spoke to Witkoff and advised him to take the issue of the bodies very seriously,” Baskin said.

But Baskin is still working hard to make peace a reality. He and Palestinian peace activist Samer Sinjilawi have passed on to the Americans the names of Palestinian private-sector individuals who are willing to be part of a Gaza governing body.

“These kind of things I’ll continue to do. We can’t let this end of the war fail,” he said.