Qatari PM tells Channel 12: Hostage deal framework was ready by Dec. 2023, regrets lives lost by delays

In a sit-down interview with Israel’s Channel 12 television network, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani shares new details of the long months of negotiations that led to a ceasefire-hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

For over a year, Qatar, along with the US and Egypt, spearheaded efforts to negotiate a deal that would end the fighting in Gaza sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught, and enable the release of the 251 hostages seized by the terror group from southern Israel on that day.

The phased ceasefire agreement that began last Sunday and has so far led to the release of seven hostages — three female civilians and four female soldiers — is only the second deal of the 15-month-old war after 105 hostages were released during a week-long truce in November last year.

Asked by Channel 12’s Arad Nir why it took so long for this deal to be finalized, Al-Thani says that it “Wasn’t an easy deal” to negotiate.

“It took us almost 15 months of negotiations, since the collapse of the first deal,” he says. “We had a lot of ups and downs throughout the negotiations, it was a very complicated process.”

“We’ve been saying since the beginning, since October 8, that we need to get this done as soon as possible. We have been through a very long process that has at some times, at many times, been very frustrating for us as mediators,” he recalls.

“What we really feel sad about is that it took [this long] to get to an agreement that we agreed on the framework of back in December 2023,” he says.

“So this is the same agreement that was agreed on then?” asks Nir.

“It’s almost the same,” Al-Thani agrees. “There are some details here and there… Everyone is saying it is the same agreement as May 27… The problem is that with every day we were delayed, we felt a sense of responsibility that [it] was costing a lot of lives, of the Gazans or of the hostages being held in Gaza.”

He says it took “a lot of persistence and hard work” to finalize the deal.

Asked who stands to benefit more from the deal, Hamas or Israel, the Qatari leader says that mediators believed the deal, in its final iteration, was the best way to ensure that the concerns of both sides were met.

“The ideal agreement [for us would be] to stop the war and get all the hostages in one phase and we’d be finished,” he says.

Asked why the deal couldn’t have been formulated that way, Al-Thani says it was prevented by “political requirements,” but does not elaborate further.

He says that the viability of the second stage of the deal, which is to formally start being negotiated on the 16th day of the first phase, depends on both Israel and Hamas. He said he hopes to start engaging with Israel next week on phase two.

“I believe that it’s very important we keep this deal until the last phase, to get everyone back and end the war permanently,” he says.

He says both the Biden Administration and the Trump Administration “played a vital role” in the agreement, and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff also played a vital role in getting the deal over the finish line.

“The commitment of President Trump to end this was a very important element,” he says.

Asked about Trump’s  threats of hell breaking out if there is no deal, he says he does not think it was threatening language that worked, but rather “the commitment … toward a solution.”