Robert Sherman is a NewsNation foreign correspondent and the author of the upcoming book, “Lessons from the Front: A Rookie Correspondent in Ukraine and Israel.”
‘Do you think it’s actually going to happen?’ ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’
Throughout the last couple of weeks in Israel, I’ve frequently encountered conversations filled with cautious optimism, balanced by the realism born from experience.
It’s no surprise. Peace efforts on Gaza have reached the one-yard line before, only to stall.
Call me a cautious optimist, but on the morning of October 8, this felt different.
Part of it was the conversations I’d been having with hostage families in the days before the announcement.
I vividly recall the gaze of Gal Gilboa-Dalal, whose brother, Guy, has been a captive in Gaza for over two years and featured in Hamas propaganda videos.
After an excruciating wait, Gal sounded genuinely upbeat.
‘It’s hard to ignore how many people are excited right now about what happened,’ he said of the talks in Egypt.
Gal dreams of taking Guy to Japan—a cherished goal for his anime-enthusiast brother. Yet, the hope is tinged with anxiety, feeling as though they are in a decisive ‘now-or-never’ moment.
Robert Sherman, a NewsNation foreign correspondent, was at the Gaza borders with the families of hostages during the time when Donald Trump’s peace agreement was nearing completion.
‘We understand in this time period we have to get to a deal, otherwise this war will never end,’ he said.
The pressure of the moment was unmistakable.
Additionally, there was immense global pressure: Washington and President Trump urging Jerusalem, Egypt and Qatar exerting influence on Hamas, Turkey also involved, and even Russia’s Vladimir Putin was supportive of the proposed deal.
And then there was what I saw on October 8, inside Gaza, with my own eyes.
Our NewsNation team embedded with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation at its ‘Saudi Neighborhood’ distribution site – the first network to do so there – and watched as women and children filed through for onions and potatoes to feed their families. Journalists rarely get in now, even with IDF coordination.
GHF has its own private security; critics have accused its sites of being chaotic and dangerous. I didn’t see that — only what you’d expect in a place where food is scarce.
‘These are desperate, hungry people who rely on our boxes to survive,’ Chapin Fay of GHF told me.
I wanted to hear directly from Gazans. I approached the queue – all women and children in this group – and was quickly swallowed by it. Kids with ear-to-ear grins asked for chocolates or wristbands to trade.
‘Do you think it’s actually going to happen?’ ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’ These were the types of conversations he was having as Palestinians waited for the terms of the agreement
In the most organic interview of my career, I asked if they were getting enough food. ‘Yes!’ they shouted back, delighted.
Then I asked what I really wanted to know: their view of the Egypt negotiations — and of Hamas.
‘I hate Hamas,’ one young woman told me in English, eyes locked on mine. ‘And I hate Israel – because of all the damage in Gaza.’
‘Yes,’ another said, backing her up. ‘We hate Hamas and Israel, by the way.’
I pressed: why Hamas? ‘I lost my dreams because of Hamas,’ one replied, pushing closer so I could hear. ‘They destroyed this place. My home is damaged. It’s not safe in Gaza because of Hamas.’ A third added: ‘I feel I’m dying. No future, no dreams in this world.’ The first said she wanted to travel – to America, to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles — and that she ‘hated this place so much.’ Another concluded: ‘Hamas brought this suffering on us.’
I was stunned by the candor. Historically, Gazans have avoided criticizing Hamas for fear of retaliation. A local Palestinian aid worker told me Hamas had put a bounty on his head for working with Americans – and still, he spoke freely.
‘Hamas is a bunch of criminals,’ he said through a translator. ‘They haven’t thought of our people’s needs for 17 years.’
In that moment, I felt the shift. Pressure from the moment. Pressure from the West. Pressure from regional capitals. And, crucially, pressure from inside Gaza for Hamas to make a deal.
A few hours after we left, the announcement came: phase one was agreed. It was the early hours in Israel; much of the country was asleep. But in Tel Aviv, whistles and cheers echoed from the night owls who couldn’t contain themselves.
Most of the people he spoke to despised Hamas. Then he felt a shift as those devastated by two years of war began to feel hope
Sherman speaks to a child in the ‘Saudi Neighborhood’ distribution site. He watched families lining up and waiting for food
President Donald Trump talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Knesset, as the hostages held by Hamas were two years were finally released. Trump in his speech declared a new dawn for the Middle East
At daybreak, in Hostage Square, Israeli flags waved above swelling crowds. That’s when it hit me: this is real.
Since then I’ve waited for the familiar ‘breakdown’ that has derailed so many deals. It hasn’t come.
Everything that needed to happen has happened so far: the IDF pullback, the ceasefire, those long columns of Gazans marching along the sea to return home.
Twenty living hostages have now come home and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have been released.
The deal is still fragile in nature, but even the pessimists believe it just might hold.
I first arrived in Israel on October 8, 2023. Apart from brief assignments in Ukraine and at the White House, I’ve been here ever since.
The war is inescapable: hostage posters on every pole; demonstrations almost daily; a constant reminder there is ‘no normal’ until every hostage is home.
It dominates conversations in coffee shops and on street corners.
And almost overnight, the tone has shifted – from despair to something like genuine hope.
There’s more diplomacy ahead, and hard decisions about the ‘day after’ in Gaza. But President Trump has vowed to ensure this holds.
They say pressure makes diamonds. It may have made peace, too.
