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Biden said the White House had been working tirelessly to secure the release of hostages since the “earliest moments of Hamas’s brutal assault.”
This account of how the hostage deal came together was described by the senior White House official and two Egyptian officials who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, as well as accounts in Israeli media.
The cell to communicate with Hamas had been established by Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s coordinator for the Middle East, and Joshua Geltzer, legal adviser to the National Security Council. McGurk would speak every morning with Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister, while Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, communicated daily with his Israeli counterparts, with Biden being briefed throughout. Also critical was CIA Director Bill Burns, who had been talking with David Barnea, the director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
The final deal that emerged this week — during a four-day cease-fire, Hamas would release 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel — was an agreement that evolved only through weeks of negotiations.
One of the earliest proposals was put forward on Oct. 12, five days after the initial Hamas attack, and it called for releasing all women and children held by Hamas and other Palestinian militants in Gaza, in return for freeing all Palestinian women in Israeli prisons, according to the Egyptian officials.
The Israelis rejected that initial proposal, but it “opened the door for more talks,” one of the Egyptian officials said.
In repeated conversations in late October between Biden and Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister underscored his red line: The attacks on Gaza would cease only if there was a hostage release. Biden had his own demand throughout the talks: Humanitarian assistance had to reach Gaza, regardless of a deal.
