Special Coverage: Hamas Agrees To Release Israeli Hostages

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1:09Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. This is a breaking news update from Bloomberg. Instant reaction and analysis from our 3 ,000 journalists and analysts around the world. Look, Hamas said it has agreed to parts, at least, of President Trump's peace plan, and it agrees to release all of the Israeli hostages. President Trump responding in a statement saying in part that Israel must immediately stop bombing Gaza, but that believes Hamas is ready for peace. I want to thank the countries that helped me put this together. Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, and so many others. So many people fought so hard.

1:58This is a big day. We'll see how it all turns out. We have to get the final word down and concrete. Joining us now with his perspective, Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York. He is, of course, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, as well a member of the House Financial Services Committee. It's great to have you back with us, Congressman. How should we be viewing this moment? Donald Trump got the hostages released. Does he deserve vindication for the way he's handled this conflict? Well, I think that his 20-point proposal I agreed with, as well as the regional partners.

2:35And so, therefore, that is a good thing. I came out in support of it. This is diplomacy. This This is the way that I think that we ultimately will solve what's happening in the Middle East and have some real and true peace. Now, I've been a big proponent, for example, of the Abraham Accords, and that, too, was started by Donald Trump in his first administration. Again, it's important, significant, and we've got to give diplomacy an opportunity to work. And just what you just reported is important also. Israel should not continue bombing Gaza. I agree with the president on that. Let's try to see if we can get this thing done.

3:17Let the negotiations continue in that regard, at least the clarifications of what the 20 points is. And let's try to make sure we can finally change the situation in the Middle East where you can have a Palestinian state side by side with a Jewish state of Israel. Well, of course, I don't need to tell you, Congressman, that both parties here have a record of not making good on ceasefire agreements, on any agreements for that matter. That goes for both Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu. As the ranking member of foreign affairs, how much time will you give this before it has credibility? Well, I think that diplomacy leads more time than just to Sunday, that's for sure.

4:00I would think that, you know, a week, a couple of weeks, should be able to hash this thing out. And I think that with the aid of Gulf countries and other countries that also have signed off on the 20-point plan, along with the United States and Israel, we should be able to get it done. I think that we're getting close. We're getting very, very close. But of course, the devil is always in the details. Let these details be discussed and rationed out, because you don't want a situation where there's been a misinterpretation of what should or should not happened. And then everything goes kaput and we're back to where we started from.

4:40So let's doubt of your eye and cross the DT that we can. Benjamin Netanyahu has been seen as a pariah by many in the region because of the high number of civilian casualties that we've seen among Palestinians living in Gaza. If this is real, Congressman, and this is in fact the path to peace. Did we just prove that you must meet strength with greater strength? Well, no, I think that what we're doing now is we are using diplomacy. Ultimately, we know that just bombing your way out of this will not create a peaceful situation in the Middle East. So diplomacy has always been something that I've advocated.

5:22And what we've not been able to do to this point was to get an agreement on both sides. Diplomacy is always much harder and takes generally longer than just simply bombing or the military strikes. So we're at that point now, I think, and hopefully we can get across the tracks with an agreement that will make a substantial difference in the Middle East where we can bring some true peace. And what's important - really important is that all of the Gulf countries, along with the Pakistanis, are all involved in this. Our allies in Europe all agree with the 20-point plan. So we're at a point where, you know, you're talking about hostages being released and humanitarian aid getting in.

6:19This is what we want. And then trying to stabilize the region, rebuilding Gaza for the Palestinians without Hamas being in control of anything. So this is a very good but hard work. And I think there's still hard work to be done. But that's the way diplomacy works. It's good to have you, Congressman. Come see us when you get back into town. Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York. First reaction there from the House Foreign Affairs Committee on this breaking news on Hamas. Joining us now with details live here on Capitol Hill, Bloomberg's Eric Martin, who was just in Israel with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio only days ago.

6:59Eric, who deserves the credit for this? Joe, this is a historic day, potentially, what we're seeing here. Here we sit on October 3rd, 2025, almost two years to the day since the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel and seeing this message from Hamas in response to the president's 20-point plan. And in particular, what caught my eye is the president calling on Israel to stop the bombing now. As you mentioned, I was just a couple of weeks ago in Jerusalem with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and I asked both of them about this long-planned Israeli offensive to go into Gaza City.

7:38Even as we were leaving for Doha, They were encircling Gaza City and planning for this increased escalation of the war. Very controversial in Israel. A lot of people concerned about this. And both of them saying that, telling me that if they could find a way to get the hostages out, to get Hamas to give up the hostages without escalating the war, that was, of course, preferred. And so this is really a monumental moment that we're seeing here in terms of the potential for peace here. Still details to be worked out, but this initial response from President Trump, I think, is quite important. Hamas is talking about accepting this deal with conditions.

8:19I know that we have some to learn still as to what those conditions are. But should we assume that Hamas actually knows where all of the hostages are? Will they be able to produce them? That certainly is an open question. And I think there is a degree of skepticism towards the Hamas response in that some of the things included in the 20-point plan, such as Hamas disarming and giving up control of Gaza. We've seen as part of their response saying that Gaza would be led by a group of technocrats and that seeming to indicate that they're willing to give up this control of Gaza, which they've maintained for nearly 20 years.

8:58But, of course, from the Israeli side, one of the fundamental things, and Prime Minister Netanyahu told me this in a press conference there, was to make sure that Hamas can never return in the way they did on October 7th. And for Israel, that means to make sure that Hamas cannot be a threat, does not have the weaponry to pose a threat to Israel in the way that they did, and to ever repeat anything approaching October 7th. Glad you could come see us, Eric. Thank you so much. Bloomberg's Eric Martin with us. live on Capitol Hill. Joining us now with her analysis, Wendy Sherman, the former Deputy Secretary of State in the Biden administration, now senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center.

9:35Wendy, I'm really glad you could be part of our conversation. I'm wondering what you need to see to know this is real. Well, look, I agree with what Eric just said. This is a positive response from the White House. They're taking yes, even a yes, but for an answer and getting diplomacy underway. As Congressman Meek said in your previous segment, diplomacy is hard work. It all comes down to the details. So yes, this is a positive moment, but a heck of a lot more work to be done here. And we don't know the answer to a number of questions, including whether really Hamas can produce all the hostages and bodies of those who are deceased within 72 hours.

10:17But I do agree with Eric that the president saying that Israel must stop its bombing now to create the space and the quiet to get those hostages back is a very positive statement in a very difficult situation. A long way to go, but better than where we were yesterday. What do you make of the timing here, Wendy? The president posted on Truth Social another threat today, gave him a deadline 6 p.m. Sunday or all hell, as he has said, will break loose. Gaza already is all hell. Did that threat unlock this acceptance? I don't know that the threat alone unlocked the acceptance. And I would say it's a yes, but acceptance.

11:04It's not a total yes acceptance yet. But I think that Egypt, Qatar, probably United Arab Emirates, even Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, those who have signed on to this proposal have applied pressure to Hamas as well, Qatar being quite important to that. And as we all know, the president just gave Qatar, which is a key negotiator here, what amounts to an Article 5 security guarantee from the United States. Now, I don't know if that will hold up because usually those things are done by treaty, not by an executive action. But nonetheless, the president clearly wants to build a strong relationship with Qatar.

11:45And I will say one other thing. This probably, if it keeps going forward, puts the president in a slightly stronger position going into the APEC meeting at the end of October in the Republic of Korea in his negotiations with China and how he is seen in the rest of the world. If he really can be the driving force to bring peace not only to Gaza and the horrific conditions that the people in Gaza have been attempting to live under, some starving to death, a desperately needing to get in. There is a lot of work to be done here. But as I said, we are in a better place today than we were yesterday.

12:28Assuming this is real, Wendy, and we project to rebuilding Gaza, this could also be extremely complicated. I know the president has talked about making this the Riviera of the Middle East or something, but how do you rebuild Gaza without removing significant portions of the population? I think the Riviera concept is a long way off. Gaza has been destroyed. The president has suggested that, and Israel has suggested that people move out of Gaza City, but they don't have fuel to do so. They don't have homes to go to. They don't have a way to move. They're worried about their children and their health.

13:11There is little health care left. Doctors Without Borders has left because it was such a dangerous situation. So what is critical here is to get aid in and to begin the rebuilding. And to go back to part of your previous discussion, we don't know whether Hamas will agree to the governmental structure that the president has agreed to. We don't know if they will disarm. So there are lots of details here yet to go. I know the president of the United States is desperate for a Nobel Peace Prize. I don't think he's going to get one in 2025. That will get announced October 10th. All of the nominations are closed, but maybe he's trying to get to 2026.

13:56We'll see how that goes. I know it's something that he's been talking about quite a bit lately. What would this mean then for the future of a Palestinian state? And what would it mean for Iran, obviously pulling the strings for Hamas? Two very good questions. I think for peace in the Middle East, clearly both the Abraham Accords and And the further work that's been done is trying to bring the whole region together. Obviously, the fall of Assad was an important piece of that puzzle, sort of degrading Hezbollah and Hamas and the Syrian militia supported by Iran, critical to being able to move forward towards peace, but an enormous amount of work to go on.

14:40And it looks like the president is sort of pulling back as sanctions, including the new sanctions at the UN that have just been imposed on Iran put pressure on Iran in hopes that Iran will do what it needs to do. I think it's a little bit of a risk here, however, probably more than a little bit, because Iran is moving forward to reconstitute its nuclear positions, reconstitute its facilities. Even Israel has said that the huge amount of enriched uranium is probably still there. They have advanced centrifuges to increase the likelihood of getting all that they need for a nuclear weapon. And even if they haven't decided to go there yet, the what I call hard, hardliners, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Kurds, Quds Force is probably pressing to make that decision to go for a nuclear weapon.

15:36So I hope there's some back-channel discussions going on with Iran, because we cannot really get to peace in the Middle East unless we can also deal with Iran. What would this mean for Iran's other proxies, like those in Yemen, for instance, who've been attacking ships on behalf of what's happening, or in protest, maybe a better way to put it, of what has been happening in Gaza? No, without a doubt. What they're doing in Yemen, still giving some support to Hezbollah, clearly still engaged in some ways probably with Hamas, and still trying to see what else they can do in the Middle East. So your point is well taken, Joe.

16:24This is an issue that really shouldn't be sidelined. The administration should continue, as I said, even if it's through quiet back channels. to make sure that people don't take their attention away from getting what is necessary here in order to make sure that peace can be longstanding, if it can be achieved with ending the war in Gaza. Just lastly, Wendy, how does this end? If the deal is real, is there a signing ceremony? And who shows up for Hamas? Well, I don't know that there's a signing ceremony. I think that Qatar has really been the country that houses Hamas. Whether Hamas's leader would sign a document, I don't see that happening.

17:17But I do see a collective action in the Middle East, if in fact all these details can be worked out. As I said, this is a good day, but there is still a lot of detailed work ahead. And I hope all of that detailed work, as the president seemed to indicate, is truly going on, because without it, there are a lot of pieces of the 20 point proposal that Hamas did not address. And we need those answers. A hopeful Wendy Sherman, senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Centre, former deputy secretary of state in the Biden administration. Wendy, it's great to have you with this breaking news. Thanks for your insights.

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