Last week, we heard about a negotiation at the U.N. Security Council that led to a brief pause in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in November 2023. As part of the pause in the fighting, Israel and Hamas agreed to exchange captives. Israeli American hostage negotiator Mickey Bergman takes us inside the complicated set of negotiations that led to that exchange.

We also hear about the negotiations that finally ended the war this October. Majed al-Ansari is a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—one of the countries involved in brokering the cease-fire. He’ll talk about how the pieces finally came together.

The Negotiators is a podcast from Foreign Policy and Doha Debates—and a special partner this season, the International Peace Institute.