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 publicized at the time, Trump put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone after a meeting at the White House in September, to apologize 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 Friday, Hamas agreed to give up its hostages without an agreement on full Israeli withdrawal.
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