It was a painstaking effort that could still come crumbling down, but after six weeks of intense war, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal that will temporarily stop fighting in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages.
About 50 of the roughly 240 people who were kidnapped by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller terrorist group also based in Gaza, and brought back to the enclave will be released in the coming days, according to the details of the agreement the two sides reached early Wednesday morning local time. The deal could still fall apart in the hours before the temporary cease in fighting begins.
ISRAEL-HAMAS HOSTAGE NEGOTIATIONS ARE 'CLOSEST WE'VE BEEN TO A DEAL,' US OFFICIAL SAYS
The agreement was weeks in the making and was brokered by the United States, Egyptian, and Qatari governments, which operated as intermediaries. From the early stages, the Qataris, who have a more established relationship with Hamas, asked the U.S. to create a small working group to focus on the hostages, and upon the request, national security adviser Jake Sullivan directed White House adviser Brett McGurk and top adviser Josh Geltzer to establish it, according to a senior administration official.
On Oct. 23, about two weeks after the initial attack, this working group got two American hostages released, Natalie and Judith Raanan. At the time, the negotiations to secure their freedom were considered a "pilot process," the official said, adding that the success "proved the concept and gave us some confidence that, and the president, that [they] really could deliver."
Once the Raanans were released, broader negotiations "intensified," while Israel's government tapped Mossad director David Barnea to lead their delegation. CIA Director Bill Burns also got involved from the U.S. side. The two began to speak "regularly about the contours of a deal from the Israeli side."
President Joe Biden called the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on Nov. 12 and informed him that Hamas had to provide identifying information about the hostages for any deal, which they had refused to do. Hamas did shortly thereafter, proving to Israelis that they had babies, toddlers, and their mothers among the hostages, and by Nov. 14, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed in general terms for a hostage deal.
"On Nov 14, the president had a call with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and in this case, now that we had identifying criteria, the discussion was really about that since we had that, had some assurance, over how many others might be held hostage that it was time to probably move forward with this deal," the official said. "The prime minister ultimately agreed, generally speaking, and his adviser minister for strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, later called Jake [Sullivan] with a formula that was approved that night by the war Cabinet on following the president's call."
The sides were on the brink of a deal, but by that night, "everything stalled," the official said, explaining that Hamas stopped communicating with the mediators. Talks stopped for a couple days until Nov. 17, when Biden spoke with the emir again, in which the U.S. president conveyed that the "onus really at this moment was on Hamas."
They met in Doha a day later, where they hammered out the details of the agreement, and a day later, Nov. 19, they received positive responses from Hamas furthering the prospective deal. The U.S. informed Israel of the news, and their war Cabinet made some changes but with "some fairly significant issues addressed by the Hamas said, which gave, I think, the Israelis the confidence to move forward," the official continued.
The first group of hostages that are set to be released in the coming days are all women and children, though the U.S. believes there are more than 50 women and children being held in Gaza. They will be released during the 4-5-day "full pause in military operations in Gaza," the official said, while significantly more humanitarian aid will be surged into the enclave.
There are three Americans, a child and two women, who could be among those released in the coming days, while seven other Americans remain unaccounted for.
Barnea is in Qatar on Wednesday as the deal nears its implementation, according to Axios.
Netanyahu's office has said it would cease military operations for an extra day for every 10 hostages they release, leaving the door open for an extended stop in the fighting.
Hamas has a history of breaking ceasefires that come at the conclusion of previous conflicts between it and Israel, including doing so when it started the war with the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that left roughly 1,200 people dead. The majority of the victims were civilians. Women and children were killed as well, while many of the deaths were civilians killed in their homes. The terrorists who carried out the multipronged attack went community by community in the area near the border with Gaza and slaughtered people, some of whom showed signs of torture.
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Israel has since declared war on Hamas, demanding that the terrorist group be removed from power in Gaza and stripped of its military capabilities. Israel's first stage of its response was an overwhelming aerial bombardment and airstrike campaign that destroyed significant amounts of infrastructure while also killing thousands of people.
In its second phase, Israeli ground forces entered Gaza, having urged civilians to evacuate south, while they sought to destroy Hamas's stronghold in northern Gaza. Hamas has embedded itself within and underneath civilian communities, including under hospitals such as the Shifa hospital, which the Israel Defense Forces raided recently, putting the civilians in danger. Hamas has a significant tunnel system underneath Gaza that has been used for years for smuggling and hiding and has been a major part of the group's guerrilla warfare tactics.