Brett McGurk, who served as President Joe Biden’s top Middle East adviser, said in a wide-ranging interview with Margaret Brennan, a portion of which aired on Face the Nation on Oct. 4, that there was never a moment when the war in Gaza could have been ended without securing the release of the hostages. The conversation centered on his new book, Brink, a chronological account of the Biden administration’s handling of the crisis that began on October 7, 2023.

A Saudi-Israel deal hours away

McGurk recounted that on October 6, 2023, he met a Saudi delegation led by Princess Reema bint Bandar in his office, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken preparing to travel to the region. The two sides shook hands on an aim to finalize a package by year’s end, with a rollout in the first quarter of 2024. The package included a pathway for Palestinian statehood, and the Palestinian Authority was engaged in the talks.

“I still can’t say if not for what happened a few hours later, we definitely would have gotten the deal,” McGurk said, adding that the effort was clearly moving in that direction. He noted developments not seen in decades, including a senior Saudi official visiting Ramallah for the first time since 1967 and Israeli officials traveling to Saudi Arabia.

Asked whether Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar knew of the plans, McGurk said he never saw anything establishing a direct link, but said he would not be surprised if derailing the agenda was one motivation. He added that the attack appeared to have been planned over a period of years.

“I do not think that there was a way to stop this war without the hostages. It had to be a hostage deal.”Brett McGurk

Intelligence and the call for an Israeli inquiry

McGurk said the United States had no intelligence in its system that amounted to a warning or indicator of the attack. Pressed on press reports that regional leaders, including Egypt’s intelligence chief and the UAE’s Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, had warned Israel, he said he was unaware of such pre-warnings from those individuals and had checked with colleagues.

He described the Israeli failure as one of imagination, a deeply ingrained assumption that Hamas was deterred. He called on Israel to establish a commission of inquiry along the lines of the U.S. 9/11 Commission once a new government is seated after upcoming elections.

Qatar, hostages and the “zone of possible agreement”

McGurk defended reliance on Qatar as an intermediary, noting that Hamas leaders have been hosted in Doha since leaving Damascus, with the tacit agreement of Israel and the Obama administration, and that Qatar hosts one of America’s largest military bases. “We have to deal with everybody,” he said, saying the channel was essential and that without Qatar “we would not have had some very critical channels.”

He laid out the core divide: Hamas demanded it remain in power and that all Palestinian prisoners be freed; Israel insisted Hamas could never again rule Gaza. He said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believed military pressure would yield a better deal, while Sinwar believed time would pressure Washington into delivering one.

McGurk detailed the November 2023 truce, which freed about 100 hostages over eight days before Hamas refused to release younger women, including Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari. They came home January 19, 2025. Two others, Carmel Gat and Eden Yerushalmi, were later killed in a tunnel under Rafah, six hostages in all, including American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. He said Hamas viewed the women as its “most precious cards” and bargained over them with a rigid prisoner-exchange ratio.

“Diplomacy if not backed by power is completely feckless.”Brett McGurk on Iran and its proxies

Rejecting the “trap” argument

Brennan noted that former national security adviser Jake Sullivan has suggested the hostage focus became almost a trap. McGurk said he did not share that view, saying no one has identified a moment when the war could have ended without a hostage release. He said that on May 27, 2024, Netanyahu signed on to a three-phase deal that Biden laid out publicly on May 31, but Hamas did not respond until July 2, a delay he linked to hardening by Iran’s leadership and a major Hezbollah rocket barrage.

On arms policy, McGurk said the administration selectively paused deliveries of heavy 2,000-pound bombs after the April 2024 World Central Kitchen strike, which President Trump reversed upon taking office. He said he believed broader public pressure on Israel had set talks back, citing a U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolution that did not condition on the hostages. On Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s criticisms of the administration’s reporting under U.S. weapons law, McGurk said no memo would have ended the war or returned the hostages.

He also called “categorically false” claims in a new book by Akbar Shahid Ahmed that he downplayed famine in Gaza or acted as Israel’s lawyer.

Brink of a regional war

McGurk said the title reflects how often the region stood on the edge. He described the April 2024 Iranian barrage on Israel, which a coalition of U.S., European and Arab partners helped repel, and the January 2024 drone attack that killed three American soldiers, after which Biden ordered strikes in Iraq and Syria. He said he had urged targeting an Iranian-backed militia commander earlier, and that Iran dismissed U.S. warnings during talks he held in Oman on January 10.

He said Biden drew a careful line: the American public would understand force to protect U.S. troops but not being drawn into a wider Middle East war. Late in the administration, he said, Netanyahu raised striking Iran’s nuclear sites, and U.S. principals agreed they would act if Tehran moved to build a bomb.

Lessons on Saudi Arabia and a personal toll

McGurk acknowledged a missed opportunity: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raised recognizing Israel in their first meeting in early 2021, but the administration did not pick it up for roughly a year and a half. He called the lack of senior engagement with the Gulf in the first year a mistake and described the 2022 fist bump with the crown prince as a self-made scandal that overshadowed a productive visit.

He closed by describing the strain of the work, including nightmares about Abigail, the young American girl taken hostage, and time missed with his own daughter. “It was the grittiness of war and diplomacy,” he said of the book. He also credited close coordination with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff in the final days of the Biden administration, which he said helped secure the January 2025 ceasefire.