White House National Security Coordinator for Middle East & North Africa on Israel-Hamas ceasefire

WASHINGTON (CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Brett McGurk, White House National Security Coordinator, spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

Brennan and McGurk talked about the three women who were released and transferred to the American Red Cross, prompting Brennan to ask how they are doing, and McGurk said:

"I just confirmed with my Israeli counterparts that they're now in Israeli custody. So this has just happened. Look, I know they're alive. I'm sure they are in- they've been held in deplorable conditions over 470 days, but the Israelis have a very good system to take them into their care, and they're going to get the care they need and be reunited with their families."

When asked how Keith Siegel, Sagui Chen and Edan Alexander, the other three people still being held captive, are doing, McGurk said, "Keith will come out in phase one. Sagui will come out in phase one. Edan was a uniformed Israeli soldier. He is phase two. But we are committed...We are committed to getting Edan out as early as possible."

Brennan then asked McGurk if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees the ceasefire as a "strategic pause," or if he actually wants to end the war, McGurk answered saying:

"The way the deal is structured, on day 16, the negotiations begin for phase two. Phase two will begin a negotiation for the exchange of soldiers to Palestinian prisoners. But also the conditions have to be set for phase two, and we support the Israelis in making sure those conditions are set so Hamas can never come back to power in Gaza. Hamas can never again threaten Israel from Gaza. Those conditions have to be set. We in the Biden administration, have been very clear. We want to see this deal reached all three phases. Every hostage come home. I think the Trump administration very much shares that objective and the template, the road map, again, that the President set out in May, this was the road map, ultimately, to ending the war, getting everybody home is the only way to do it. That road map is now in place. We have a ceasefire today in Gaza, and we have a good chance to get every hostage home, and we got to do everything we can to make that happen."

Talks then came to President Joe Biden's comments in one of his last interviews, where he shared a private conversation with Netanyahu, and the president said, "You can't be carpet bombing these communities," and adds that the United Nations and international order "was created to stop that from ever happening again."

This prompted Brennan to ask McGurk if he thinks "Israel's standing in the world has been damaged by the conduct of its military," to which McGurk said:

"When the debate was whether or not the Israelis should go in on the ground. And we had a debate with them about that. Ultimately, we supported them, and they were right, because Hamas was living in 400 miles of tunnels underneath Gaza. There was no way to root out Hamas without going into Gaza, and frankly...It was about how this was going to go. And look, we've worked very closely with the Israelis. Too many people have died in this war. That's why we work so hard to get to where we are today with a cease fire. The cease fire today, this framework, this road map the President laid out in May, was the only way to end the war, and the only way to end the war was, frankly, with massive pressure on Hamas and knocking out the other proxies that were supporting Hamas. I just have to emphasize this again, when Hezbollah was firing on Israel every single day, it was Hassan Nasrallah's position that they would not stop shooting at Israel and making Northern Israel no man's land until, until Israel accepted all of Hamas' terms in Gaza. Israel had to knock out Hezbollah to get this deal. That's what happened with the cease fire at the end of November. That's what opened up the space to get this deal. It's been a brutal war, but to end it, we had to get the cease fire deal. And to do that, to do that, we had to support Israel and back them up. And we did."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with McGurk, click here.