My next guest negotiated the release, more than a decade ago, of Israeli soldier Gillesh Shalit. He was held hostage by Hamas for more than five years. These are images of when he was brought home. This was a huge moment, and this went on, as I said, for five years. So they traded this one Israeli soldier for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. That was the deal that was struck, including hundreds who were serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis. Gershen Baskin is now Middle East Director for the International Communities Organization, and he joins us live from Tel Aviv. Gershen, good to have you with us today. When you hear these reports of this deal that is being worked on, tell me what you think of it and how you think this might all work out.

I think that we have a great urgency to bring out as many hostages as we can safely through a negotiated agreement with Hamas before Israel pushes further south in the Gaza Strip, where most of the hostages are probably being located in tunnels and in structures, and the Hamas leadership, the military command, as well as the political leadership are there. Now, Israel has determined that its primary mission in this war is to eliminate Hamas's ability to control the territory of Gaza ever again and to threaten Israel. And at the same time, the Israelis have dedicated themselves to bring back all the hostages. These two missions are very difficult to accomplish hand in hand. If there is a possibility for a negotiated agreement now, it is probably for the women, the children, and the elderly hostages, Israel will agree to a partial cease-fire and the release of some prisoners from Israel, taking great risks at doing it. But we must get the hostages out as soon as possible and as many of them as possible. There are great risks every day to the hostages. We've just seen with the finding of the body of UD Vice, there are 238 other hostages like her who could have the same fate if we don't manage to get them out quickly.

We know 30 of them, I believe, are under the age of 18 and many are 22. There's several who were taken from the music festival, and these people. I just imagine what they're- They're babies. Exactly. They're young children and babies.

They're young children and babies.

Let me ask you about this because you negotiated the release of Gwlad Shalee with Ghazi Hamad, who people are now more familiar with, probably, and you're very familiar with him. He is the individual. I think we have an image of him. We've heard from him. He talks about from the river to the sea. And he has said that the elimination of Israel is, yes, of course, what the goal is here. What is dealing with him like and what do you think is... How do you think all of this is working behind the scenes right now?

The Ghazi Hamad who has merged, this is Yehdi As-Sinwar on the screen, not Zia-Sihamed. This is one of the people who were released in the hostage deal, the prisoner deal in 2011. Ghazi Hamad of today, who's the spokesperson of this war in Beirut, is not the Ghazi Hamad that I knew, the person who was responsible for social welfare in Gaza over the last years. The man who I've spoken to more than a thousand times and met face to face four times with, he has changed. This war has changed him. He left Gaza. Like many of the Hamas leaders are sitting in their comfortable suites while they're speaking about the war and speaking about the tragedy of Palestine, while they have no responsibility for the Palestinian people on the ground. They are irresponsible criminals who need to be held to justice by their own people.

Well, he said he wants to have an October eighth, October ninth, October 10th, Gershen, thank you very much. It's great to have you with us, sir, and your experience is very valuable to us. Thank you very much.

Hey, everyone, I'm Emily Campano. Catch me and my co-host, Harris Falkner and Kaylee Mechanemi, on Outnumbered every weekday at 12:00 PM Eastern, or sets your DVR. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page for daily highlights.