WASHINGTON — The negotiations hardly went smoothly. But in the end, persistence paid off.
Six weeks ago, not long after Hamas killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and took dozens of others hostage in a surprise attack, the Qatari government quietly contacted the United States to discuss how to secure the release of those captured. could be secured. by the militant group.
But the mission required extreme sensitivity. It was so secret that U.S. officials set up a communications cell to reach Hamas directly and closely guarded these negotiations throughout the U.S. government. Only a handful of people were aware of the talks, a senior White House official said.
The cell ensured that the small circle of negotiators could speak regularly without additional bureaucracy. U.S. and Israeli officials have tried for weeks to strike a deal that would free dozens of hostages held by Hamas. The White House saw this as the only realistic way to end the bloody fighting that has been devastating the region for more than six weeks.
The US exerted constant pressure on Hamas, with Qatar and Egypt acting as critical intermediaries. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden and other senior U.S. officials assured distraught family members of hostages through emotional Zooms and in-person meetings that they were doing everything they could to secure the release of their loved ones.
The US president continued to work on the hostage deal during phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders on Wednesday, stressing the importance of an agreement towards an actual release. Biden vowed he would not relent until all American hostages in Gaza were released.
And there was one final hiccup in the agreement that both sides had apparently reached. Talks continued and no hostages would be released before Friday.
Biden said the White House has worked tirelessly to secure the release of hostages since the “first moments of Hamas’s brutal attack.”
This account of how the hostage deal came about was detailed by the senior White House official and two Egyptian officials granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations, as well as by accounts in the Israeli media.
The cell to communicate with Hamas was founded by Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s coordinator for the Middle East, and Joshua Geltzer, legal advisor to the National Security Council. McGurk spoke every morning with Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, while Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, communicated daily with his Israeli counterparts, with Biden briefed the entire time. Also critical was CIA director Bill Burns, who had spoken with David Barnea, the director of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.
The final deal reached this week — during a four-day ceasefire, Hamas would release 50 hostages in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel — was an agreement that evolved over weeks of negotiations.
One of the first proposals was submitted on October 12, five days after the first Hamas attack, and called for the release of all women and children held by Hamas and other Palestinian militants in Gaza, in exchange for the release of all Palestinian women in Israeli prisons. , Egyptian officials said.
The Israelis rejected that initial proposal, but it “opened the door for more talks,” one of the Egyptian officials said.
In repeated conversations at the end of October between Biden and Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister underlined his red line: the attacks on Gaza would only stop if a hostage situation took place. Biden had his own demand during the talks: humanitarian aid must reach Gaza regardless of a deal.
Ultimately, the first two American hostages held by Hamas – Natalie and Judith Raanan – were released. As senior national security officials monitored their release from Gaza and Biden personally called Natalie’s father to tell him about the news, the White House became more confident that the secret cell set up to talk to Hamas would work, and were efforts intensified to rescue more hostages. .
Shortly after the Raanans’ release – and just before a long-awaited Israeli ground invasion of Gaza – the US was informed that Hamas had signed the outlines of an agreement that would temporarily halt the offensive while the women and children were released.
But from Israel’s point of view, there were several problems: Hamas had provided no evidence of the lives of any of the hostages, nor would it say who exactly was being held until the fighting stopped. That would not be enough for Israel to stop the ground invasion. The US was also skeptical.
Meanwhile, Hamas political leaders in Beirut, Doha and Cairo accused Israel of stalling the talks.
Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told journalists in Beirut on November 10 that the group was willing to release the civilian hostages if there were guarantees of “safe movement so that we can collect information and data to carry out this step .” He complained that Israel did not respond.
Nevertheless, negotiations continued.
Israel’s ground invasion plans were revised so that fighting could be halted if a hostage deal was reached. The talks – which involved sending messages to Gaza via Doha or Cairo – involved highly technical details, and proposals flew back and forth. The US has repeatedly urged Hamas, with Doha as an intermediary, to provide identifying information for the women and children being held. The militant group continued to refuse.
On November 12, Biden had had enough.
He called Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and demanded details from Hamas. For a deal to go through, Biden insisted, the US needed clear identifications of the estimated 50 hostages who would be released — age, gender, where they came from. Otherwise the deal would not go through.
Shortly after that phone call, Hamas provided the information the US had requested. Biden called Netanyahu on November 14 and urged the prime minister to accept the deal. Netanyahu agreed to move forward. In meetings with McGurk, Netanyahu urged the US to put pressure on the Qataris to finalize terms.
During this time, the mediators had exchanged more workable drafts of a hostage agreement. One version outlined a five-day ceasefire and the release of somewhere between 200 and 300 Palestinian women and children. Israel had pushed for a two-day ceasefire and the release of about a hundred non-Hamas Palestinians.
But Hamas then went dark. The militant group stopped talking to the Qataris and Egyptians and threatened to leave the talks after the Israeli army entered Shifa Hospital, the largest and best-equipped medical center in Gaza that Israel insists is being used by Hamas for military purposes.
“Everything would fall apart at this stage,” said one of the Egyptian officials. “Hamas was angry. We were all angry.”
For three days, Egypt, Qatar and the US pressured the warring sides to reach a compromise: a four-day ceasefire and three Palestinian prisoners for every hostage. Egypt also pushed to ease Israeli restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid. Talks resumed last Friday and in another conversation with the Qatari emir, Biden told him that this was the last chance for a hostage deal and that he had to make it now.
McGurk spent the next few days after that phone call between Biden and Al Thani working out the finer points of the hostage deal. Officials also devised a way to entice Hamas to release more hostages than the 50 it had already agreed to. The universe of unresolved issues continued to shrink until Tuesday morning, November 21, when Hamas told Qatari officials they were joining in.
The Israeli war cabinet signed its agreement on Wednesday.
“In recent days I have spoken with our friend, US President Joe Biden, and I have asked for his intervention to improve the draft that will be presented to you,” Netanyahu said as his war cabinet met. “It has indeed improved to accommodate more hostages and at a lower cost. These conversations have been productive. President Biden has joined this and I thank him for that.”
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Kim reported from Nantucket, Massachusetts, Magdy reported from Cairo and Frankel reported from Jerusalem. Abby Sewell contributed from Beirut.