The secret negotiations that led to the Gaza hostages deal
That work, begun in the days after the hostages were taken, finally bore fruit with the announcement of a prisoner swap deal mediated by Qatar and Egypt and agreed by Israel, Hamas and the United States.
The secretive effort included tense personal diplomatic engagement by U.S. President Joe Biden, who held a number of urgent conversations with emir of Qatar and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the weeks leading up to the deal.
It also involved hours of painstaking negotiations including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA Director Bill Burns, national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy Jon Finer, and U.S.
Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, among others.
Two officials involved in the effort provided extensive details of the work that led to an agreement in which 50 hostages are to be freed in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners during a four-day pause in fighting.
Shortly after Oct. 7, Qatar — a long-established mediator in a volatile region — approached the White House with sensitive information regarding the hostages and the potential for their release, the officials said.
The Qataris asked that a small team, which they called a «cell,» be established to work the issue privately with the Israelis.
Sullivan directed McGurk and another National Security Council official, Josh Geltzer, to establish the team. This was done without telling other relevant U.S.
agencies because Qatar and Israel demanded extreme secrecy with only a few people to be in the know, the officials said.
McGurk, a seasoned diplomat with deep experience in the Middle East, held daily morning calls with the prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. He reported back to Sullivan and Biden was
