A small team, complex communications involving heads of state and several intelligence chiefs, progress and obstacles… Two senior US officials involved in the effort described on Tuesday the “extremely arduous” process that resulted in the agreement to release some of the hostages held by Hamas.

The Israeli government approved the deal that provides for the release of 50 hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and a four-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

It took five weeks of “extremely arduous” negotiations to get here, one of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained to reporters last night.

Very quickly after the bloody and unprecedented October 7 attack launched by Hamas on Israel, Qatar offered to mediate the release of the approximately 240 hostages the Palestinian movement had taken to the Gaza Strip.

Small group

A small group, “a core,” was then created to “work very carefully, very discreetly” with the goal of freeing the hostages. The administration of US President Joe Biden was represented by two high-ranking White House officials, Brett McGurk and Josh Gelger.

There followed weeks of “daily contacts, often hourly” between the Americans, Israelis, Egyptians and Qatar.

Egypt, which has the only crossing to the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel, is a historic and undisputed mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The head of Hamas lives in Qatar, but the country also maintains good relations with Washington.

The first major step was taken on October 20, with the release of two American women by Hamas, “a test”, the US official explained, noting that the White House had monitored their path to freedom “in real time”.

More hostages

The release of the two American women proved that it is possible to free all the hostages and gave Washington confidence that Qatar could achieve that goal through the small team it had set up, the official said.

Immediately, a more intensive process began and its head C.I.A William Burns began speaking regularly with her manager Mossad David Barnea.

The US president believed that an agreement to release the hostages was the only realistic path to declaring a cessation of hostilities.

On October 24, as Israel was about to launch ground operations in Gaza, the US side was informed that Hamas had agreed to the parameters of a deal to release women and children, which would mean a cessation of hostilities and a postponement of the ground operation.

American officials were discussing with the Israelis whether or not the ground operation should be delayed.

The Israelis believed that these parameters were not clear enough to justify the delay, since there was no evidence that the hostages were alive. Hamas claimed it cannot know who is being held until there is a ceasefire.

The US and Israel considered the Palestinian movement’s stance insincere. The US official explained that Israel’s plan for the ground operation was modified to allow for a pause if an agreement was reached.

Over the next three weeks, Biden held constant talks as various proposals were floated to free the hostages. Hamas was asked to present a list of the hostages it is holding and offer guarantees that it will release them if an agreement is reached.

The process was long and arduous, communications difficult and messages had to go through Doha or Cairo to reach Gaza, the official noted.

Biden had an undisclosed conversation with Qatar’s prime minister as an initial deal began to take shape.

Based on this, in the first phase women and children hostages would be released, while in exchange the Israelis would release Palestinian prisoners.

The Israelis insisted that Hamas should release all women and children in the first phase. The US agreed and demanded through Qatar proof that the women and children held hostage by Hamas are alive or information on their identification.

The Palestinian movement denied the request and responded that it could guarantee the release of 50 hostages in the first phase.

On November 9, Burns met in Doha with the Qatari leader and the Mossad’s Barnea to discuss the text of the emerging agreement.

A key obstacle at that stage was that Hamas had not specified who it was holding.

Three days later, Biden was on the phone with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and demanded the names and identification information of the 50 hostages, including their ages, genders and nationalities. Without this information, the American official emphasized, there was no basis for the agreement to proceed.

A little later, Hamas presented the details of the 50 hostages.

On November 14, the US president had a telephone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him to accept the agreement, Netanyahu agreed.

McGurk met with the Israeli prime minister the same day in Israel. Emerging from a meeting, Netanyahu grabbed McGurk’s arm and told him “we need this deal,” while urging Biden to talk to the emir of Qatar about the final terms of the deal.

The talks were delayed as communications in Gaza were cut. When they were reinstated, Biden was in San Francisco for the APEC meeting. He had a phone call with the emir of Qatar and told him that this is the last chance. The emir vowed to press for the deal to close, the officials said.

“The president insisted that the deal must be closed, now. Time is up,” one US official said.

On November 18, McGurk met in Doha with the Prime Minister of Qatar. Burns, who had previously held discussions with the Mossad, also participated in the conversation by phone. During these talks, the last gaps in the agreement were also closed.

Now the agreement involved the release of women and children hostages, in the first phase, but with the possibility of further releases by Hamas with the aim of returning all the hostages to their families.

The next morning in Cairo, McGurk met with the head of Egyptian intelligence, Abbas Kamil. It became known that the leaders of Hamas in Gaza accepted almost all the terms of the agreement. The question of the number of hostages to be released in the first phase and the final structure of the agreement for further releases remained open.

Many contacts followed and finally the agreement was approved by all parties.