After months of stalled talks following the collapse of a ceasefire deal in March, a familiar face was seen sitting alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a first-phase peace deal was finalised: Jared Kushner.
The son-in-law of US President Donald Trump was in Jerusalem, accompanied by billionaire and Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, to present the agreement to Israel's Cabinet before it was eventually approved on Thursday evening.
In high-stakes negotiations like this, a team of people is required to carry out painstaking work behind the scenes to get both parties to the bargaining table.
And according to senior US officials requesting to speak on background, while mediators worked to get Israel and Hamas closer to an agreement, Kushner and Witkoff were two key players involved in closing the deal.
Earlier this week, the pair flew to Egypt to join negotiations between the two delegations, which included discussions about the release of Palestinian prisoners and handing back of Israeli hostages taken during the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hours later, Trump announced that Israel and Hamas had agreed to phase-one of a peace plan which involved a ceasefire and an Israeli military pullback to a "yellow line" within Gaza.
The breakthrough delivered Trump a made-for-TV moment when Secretary of State Marco Rubio crossed the room to whisper the news in his ear in front of waiting cameras.
Trump has since lauded the efforts of his negotiating team, dubbed the "dealmaking consortium". Among that group were Rubio, Witkoff, War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Jared Kushner.
"Jared's a very smart guy. He did the Abraham Accords," Trump said when asked why Kushner had joined this round of talks.
"He's a very smart person and he knows the region, knows the people, knows a lot of the players."
Unlike in Trump's first term when Kushner served as an adviser, the businessman does not hold a government position.
Senior US officials said he initially served in an informal advisory role for the final round of negotiations and that his involvement with efforts to secure a peace deal has increased over the past few months.
Last week, Kushner told a government meeting in Jerusalem that the peace deal "would not have been possible without the bravery of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] and its soldiers".
"What they've accomplished not just in Gaza, but also what they've done in the theatre over the last couple of years to eliminate Hezbollah in the north and really degrade them," he said.
Jerusalem had been the last of many stops on Kushner and Witkoff's crisscrossing journey through the US and the Middle East to get an agreement over the line.
Kushner also said that Netanyahu "did a great job with the negotiations".
"You held your lines firm and I think that between you and President Trump, you had a lot of alignment on what the end state should be," he said.
The New York Times reported that Trump had relied on his son-in-law to step in and add momentum to the negotiations.
And after the developments this week, it seems as if Kushner fulfilled that expectation.
Kushner, the Middle East and the supposed family rift
When Trump first entered the Oval Office in 2016, Kushner and his wife, Ivanka, uprooted their high-society lives in New York and moved to the nation's capital to serve in his administration.
The couple had spent years by Trump's side in business and that loyalty was rewarded when Kushner was appointed as a chief adviser.
Ivanka too worked as a close adviser to her father, accompanying him on foreign trips and popping into high-profile meetings, to the chagrin of some aides.
Trump's son-in-law was considered among the most influential voices during the president's first term.
Before his appointment, Kushner had no experience in government or international affairs, although he had visited Israel since childhood, and his family had close ties to Mr Netanyahu.
Israel's leader had reportedly even stayed at the Kushners' home in New Jersey, sleeping in Jared's bedroom, while the teenager slept in the basement.
Kushner's biggest coup during Trump's term was the Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and three Arab states.
Signed in September 2020, in the dying days of Trump's presidency, the development was heralded in the White House as the dawn of a new era in the Middle East.
"I will say that [Donald Trump has] also set the table for a lot more great breakthroughs in the months and years ahead," Kushner declared at the time.
But when Trump lost the 2020 campaign, Kushner was out of a job. And after the events of January 6, he and his wife faded from the spotlight, following speculation of a supposed rift between the couple and the former president.
Husband and wife reportedly told those close to them they had little interest in returning to Washington.
Business dealings
While he has never been far from the White House, Kushner pivoted back to the world of business during Joe Biden's term in office.
In 2021, he formed investment firm Affinity Partners, which has ties to government wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to the New York Times.
Recently, the businessman brokered a major deal to break into the lucrative gaming industry.
Affinity Partners is part of a consortium of private equity companies involved in a $US55 billion ($83 billion) bid to take gaming company Electronic Arts (EA) private in the biggest leveraged buyout of all time. That's when a company borrows a large amount of money to buy another.
A major backer is Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). The government has made no secret of its designs for the country to become a major gaming hub, and it has been using PIF as part of this endeavour.
But Kushner's business dealings within the Middle East have sparked scrutiny from ethics experts, Democrats in Congress and some Republicans.
When asked about potential conflicts of interest, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a rebuke last week.
"I think it's frankly despicable that you're trying to suggest that it's inappropriate for Jared Kushner, who is widely respected around the world and has great trust and relationships with these critical partners in these countries, to strike a 20-point, comprehensive, detailed peace plan that no other administration would ever be able to achieve," she said.
Two weeks after the EA deal was made public, Kushner was in the Middle East negotiating a peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
Kushner re-enters the frame
Trump's son-in-law has seemingly been working behind the scenes on a peace deal in Gaza for months.
In August, Kushner and former British prime minister Tony Blair reportedly participated in a meeting on Gaza in the White House, presenting the president with ideas for a post-war plan.
Diplomats told the Financial Times that Kushner had coordinated with Blair, who was working on Gaza peace plans for more than a year using his Tony Blair Institute.
Senior US officials said Kushner's role in the negotiations started in more of an advisory capacity but, over the last few weeks, the work had really increased.
The president exerted pressure on Hamas and Israel to get things done ahead of the two year anniversary of the war.
Discussions "really took a turn" at the end of September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, according to Rubio.
"You [Trump] convened a historic meeting — not simply of Arab countries, but of Muslim-majority countries from around the world, including Indonesia was there, Pakistan was there — and created this coalition behind this plan," he told a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
"Then, on that following Monday, you met with the prime minister of Israel here, and that plan was presented. And then, of course, our great negotiating team followed up on it."
At the end of September, Kushner attended meetings held during Netanyahu's visit to discuss Trump's 20-point peace deal.
That then culminated in Kushner's lighting tour through the Middle East this week with Witkoff.
"The team had struggled, and his experience and his relationships with the key players was an important fact in the breakthrough," Dan Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel under the Obama administration, told Politico.
Will Kushner’s role continue?
Netanyahu has joined the US president in heaping praise on Kushner and Witkoff for their efforts.
He said Israel "couldn't have achieved it without the extraordinary help of President Trump and his team", Witkoff and Kushner.
Some Democrats have also applauded Kushner's work.
"He was exceptionally important in Abraham Accords, knows how to manage Bibi and understands the Arab countries," Thomas R. Nides, who served as the US ambassador to Israel in the Biden administration, told the New York Times.
"Forget my politics, I'm more than happy to give him as much credit as he deserves."
But it's not yet clear if Kushner will play an ongoing role in negotiations.
While the signing of a phase-one peace plan is welcome news in Israel and Gaza after months of stalled progress, many remain cautious about the days, weeks and months ahead.
Trump is planning to attend an "official" signing ceremony for the deal in Egypt, along with other Arab countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
For the moment, there is a deal in place to halt fighting and release hostages and prisoners.
But many sticking points remain, including unresolved questions over the future governance of Gaza, security and Palestinian self-determination.
