A Conversation with the former Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs

On September 11th the Program on Extremism held a timely and insightful conversation with Steven Gillen, former Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (DSPEHA) and current senior official at the U.S. State Department. Gillen played a central role in the U.S. response to the hostage crisis following the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

This discussion explored the origins and mission of the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, as well as Gillen’s personal account of the U.S. government’s efforts in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks.

A career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Gillen has held key diplomatic roles across the globe, including assignments in Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia, and the broader Middle East. He was awarded the FBI Director’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2024 for his work assisting victims while deployed to Israel during the crisis.

The conversation was moderated by David Zimmermann, Senior Research Fellow. Zimmermann is a retired FBI Special Agent and former Assistant Legal Attaché in Tel Aviv, where he led the FBI’s Israel-based efforts from October 2023 to July 2024 to help secure the release and return of over 250 hostages held by Hamas. 

On September 11, 2025, the 24th anniversary of the 2001 attacks, the Program on Extremism (PoE) at The George Washington University hosted a virtual discussion between David Zimmerman, Senior Research Fellow at PoE, and Steven Gillen, former Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (DSPEHA).

After a career as a senior Foreign Service officer, Gillen turned to working at the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA) to serve his country and to “help fellow human beings.” He explained that SPEHA was created in June 2015, under the Obama Administration, through Executive Order 13698 and Presidential Policy Directive 30 to address hostage-taking and wrongful detention abroad. Gillen noted that prior to its creation, families lacked a clear point of contact within the government and believed the U.S. government lacked a sufficient diplomatic component to help augment or lead efforts to return hostages. SPEHA was implemented to fill this gap, dealing with those who are wrongfully detained by internationally recognized governments and hostage-taking by nontraditional actors, such as Hamas.

The conversation shifted to the timely discussion of what many, including Gillen, consider to be Israel’s 9/11: the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel. The assault killed 1,200 people, including 45 Americans, and took 251 hostages, 12 of which were Americans. Gillen flew to Tel Aviv with then Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately following the attack to meet with affected families, the Israeli government and military forces, American Embassy leadership, intelligence counterparts, and members of other countries who were affected. Secretary Blinken asked Gillen to remain in Israel to provide long-term support for hostage recovery efforts. What began as a six-day trip for Gillen turned into months of sustained diplomatic engagement. There, Gillen worked closely with PoE’s David Zimmerman, who was stationed in Israel at the time as the FBI liaison working counterterrorism and the hostage crisis.

Gillen emphasized the importance of senior officials engaging directly with families of hostages, saying that they have a moral obligation to connect with them, even if they do not have any updates. He described a dilemma that the Israeli government had to face early in the crisis: whether to prioritize the war effort against Hamas or negotiations for hostage recovery. While Gillen’s priority was the hostages, he recognized the merit and logic of degrading Hamas’ capabilities, recalling the words a mentor had said to him once, that sometimes “it’s not wrong versus right, it’s varying degrees of right.”

In late November 2023, 105 hostages were released by Hamas, including 81 women and children, and 24 foreign workers. Gillen described that day as the “highlight of my diplomatic career,” adding that the successful negotiation brought a “sense of relief” that future progress could be made. Gillen concluded that when you take a hostage, you are not only taking that person, but you are also holding an entire family hostage, too.