WASHINGTON
\nA secret cell headed by the CIA and Mossad chiefs, and multiple contacts between US President Joe Biden and leaders of Israel, Qatar, and Egypt underpinned an \u201cexcruciating\u201d five weeks resulting in the truce agreement, a US official said.
\nIn a detailed account to reporters by a senior US official, a picture has emerged of a tense international effort beset by sudden communication cutoffs with Hamas, disputes over prisoners lists, and safety concerns on the ground.
\nThe US official said the \u201cextremely excruciating five-week process\u201d of negotiations began with a call from Qatar to Washington and the Israelis, in a bid to free some of the prisoners taken by Hamas during the Oct 7 raid.
\nQatar, which brokered the agreement, \u201casked that a cell be established to work on the issue very carefully, very secretly, together with the Israelis\u201d, the US official said.
\nQatar hosts a Hamas political office, and has behind-the-scenes diplomatic links with Israel. Biden administration officials were having \u201cdaily, sometimes hourly, senior level of engagement with Qatar, with Egypt and with Israel on the issue of the hostages,\u201d according to the official.
\nThe release of two American citizens on October 20 was seen as \u201ca pilot process\u201d for the overall negotiations, the official said.
\n\u201cWe were able to track, kind of in real time, the (hostages) as they moved from Gaza, ultimately across the border and into freedom,\u201d the American said.
\nTheir safe return \u201cgave us some confidence that\u2026 Qatar really could deliver through the cell that we had established.\u201d
\nBiden \u2018engaged daily\u2019
\nSoon, Mossad director David Barnea and CIA chief William Burns were also deeply involved. A flurry of phone calls between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed on Oct 20, 22, 23 and 25.
\nBiden \u201cwas engaged daily as extremely difficult talks and proposals were traded back and forth,\u201d the official said, noting that discussions centered around transportation corridors, surveillance and timeframes. Hamas came under intense pressure to produce a list of prisoners.
\nCommunication proved difficult as messages had to pass from Doha or Cairo into Gaza and back.
\nBy Oct 25, Hamas was saying it could guarantee about 50 releases in the first phase, but their formal list had just 10 names.
\nOn Nov 9, the CIA\u2019s Burns rushed to Doha to help thrash out a deal text, but the identification of hostages remained a sticking point.
\nBiden called the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, on Nov 12 and \u201cmade very clear that where we were being not enough,\u201d the US official said.
\nShortly afterwards, Hamas produced the identifying criteria for the 50 prisoners.<\/p>\n
As Israel\u2019s bombing of Gaza intensified and civilian deaths soared, Biden called Netanyahu on Nov 14 urging him to \u201cmove forward with this deal,\u201d and the prime minister ultimately agreed, the official said.<\/p>\n
But suddenly, with a deal in sight that day, \u201ceverything stalled again,\u201d the US official said. Hamas had broken off talks.<\/p>\n
Biden called the Qatari emir on Nov 17, according to the official, to make clear the deal \u201chad to close.\u201d Two days later, the Americans met with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel and received assurances from Hamas \u201cclosing the gaps,\u201d the US official said.<\/p>\n
Salient points<\/p>\n
Hamas said Israel had agreed to halt air traffic over the north of Gaza from 8am GMT until 2pm GMT each day of the truce and to halt all air traffic over the south for the entire period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON A secret cell headed by the CIA and Mossad chiefs, and multiple contacts between US President Joe Biden and leaders of Israel, Qatar, and Egypt underpinned an \u201cexcruciating\u201d five weeks resulting in the truce agreement, a US official said. In a detailed account to reporters by a senior US official, a picture has emerged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-369912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n