White House 'hopeful' for hostage release Friday as officials describe Biden's role, backstory

White House 'hopeful' for hostage release Friday as officials describe Biden's role, backstory

Officials called the negotiations an “extremely excruciating process.”

BySelina Wang

November 23, 2023, 12:17 PM

The White House has said it remains “hopeful” that the release of hostages by Hamas in Gaza will begin on Friday morning, as the parties work out “final logistical details.”

“The deal was agreed and remains agreed. The parties are working out final logistical details particularly for the first day of implementation. It is our view that nothing should be left to chance as the hostages begin coming home. Our primary objective is to ensure that they are brought home safely. That is on track and we are hopeful that implementation will begin on Friday morning,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement late Wednesday after the release was delayed.

From Massachusetts, where he's vacationing with his family for Thanksgiving in Nantucket, President Joe Biden has called the leaders of Israel, Egypt and Qatar, staying in close contact with them, officials said, to ensure the deal gets carried through to the end.

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden exit Air Force One at Nantucket Memorial Airport, in Nantucket, Nov. 21, 2023.Tom Brenner/Reuters

Senior administration officials said the president has been very hands-on in the negotiation that they said has been as an “extremely excruciating process.”

Officials, on background, described how, for weeks, Biden has been working the phones with regional leaders — personally urging Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar to press Hamas to accept the deal and for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do the same.

Abigail Mor-Edan, 3, in an undated image.Liz Naftali

In the early days of the crisis, officials described what they called a “secret cell” of top Biden aides who worked behind the scenes with Israel and Qatar — which has been acting as an intermediary.

Officials described the release of two Americans last month as a test of whether this secret cell could deliver. From there, they worked on a broader deal. Negotiations stalled several times, they said, and, at one point, Hamas even broke off talks.

U.S. officials say it is Biden's diplomatic pressure that's been critical to getting this deal together.

Relatives, friends and supporters of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel, hold placards and images of those taken during a protest for their release in Tel Aviv, Nov. 22, 2023.Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty Images

National security adviser Jake Sullivan said the key to getting the deal done was getting both sides to “get specific.”

“The big move happened late last week when President Biden spoke first with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and then with the emir of Qatar, to say how many hostages, for how many days, in return for how many Palestinian prisoners. And it was really the work to refine those details that finally produced the breakthrough that we now see resulting in the announcement of a pause in hostilities, and the first return of prisoners of hostages,” he said Wednesday on ABC's “Good Morning America.”

At the same time, he noted the fragility of the deal. “Until we actually see them come out, be in the arms of their loved ones, get home safely, we cannot be fully confident,” he said. “So, we are going to wait, as the families are waiting, with bated breath, until they come out and then until every last American comes out.”

While the current deal is expected to include the release of three Americans — two women and a 3 year old girl whose parents were killed by Hamas — there are still several Americans unaccounted for, and many hostages not included in the deal.

While the initial agreement designates a four-day pause in the fighting for the release of about 50 hostages — women and children in exchange for about 150 Palestinian women and teenagers held in Israeli jails, U.S. officials said they and Biden will keep on pushing for the release of all hostages beyond that — with the agreement calling for the truce to possibly be extended. (Netanyahu has said the Israel's war on Hamas will continue after any hostage releases.)

“If Hamas wants that pause to continue, it has to produce additional hostages. That was not the terms of the deal even two to three weeks ago. And that's because Hamas is under pressure. We structured this deal in a way that incentivizes the release of all hostages. So the 50 up front. We are hopeful we can have this continue as more hostages come home,” Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, told MSNBC Wednesday.

ABC News' Justin Gomez contributed to this report.