Netanyahu agrees to send the head of Israeli intelligence to Qatar to negotiate a cease-fire in Gaza
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the dispatch of the director of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency to Qatar for ceasefire talks, in a sign of progress in talks over the war in Gaza.
It is not yet clear when David Barnea will travel to Qatar’s capital Doha for the latest round of indirect talks between Israel and the Hamas militant group. Its presence means that senior Israeli officials, who would have to sign off on any deal, are now involved.
Only one brief truce was reached in the 15-month war, and that was in the first weeks of the fighting. The talks, brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, have since repeatedly stalled.
Netanyahu insists on destroying Hamas’ ability to fight in Gaza. Hamas insists on the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the largely destroyed area.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Thursday that more than 46,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, had been killed in the war, but did not say how many were fighters or civilians.
The head of Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet and military and political advisers are also being sent to Qatar. Netanyahu’s office said the decision came after a meeting with his defense minister, security chiefs and negotiators “on behalf of the outgoing and incoming US administrations.”
The office also released a photo of Netanyahu with President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who was in Qatar this week.
The families of nearly 100 hostages still held in Gaza after being captured in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war are pushing Netanyahu to negotiate a deal to return their loved ones home.
The recovery of the bodies of two hostages over the past week has renewed fears that time is running out. Hamas said it was unsure who was dead or alive after months of fierce fighting.
“Return to an agreement that ensures all hostages to the last – those living for rehabilitation and the deceased – are given a proper burial in their homeland,” a group representing the families of some of the hostages said in a statement.
According to Israel, Hamas and other groups killed 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages in the attack that started the war. More than 100 hostages have been freed since the November 2023 ceasefire, while others have been rescued or recovered over the past year. The Israeli army claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants during the attack without providing any evidence.
Israel says it has carried out airstrikes on dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza over the past 24 hours, in attacks that Palestinian health authorities say have killed nearly 100 people.
Israel and Hamas are also under pressure to reach an agreement before the inauguration of US President Joe Biden and Trump on January 20.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said this week that a deal was “very close” and that he hoped to complete it before handing over diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration. But U.S. officials have expressed similar optimism several times over the past year.
Issues in the talks include determining which hostages will be released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which Palestinian prisoners will be released and the extent of the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza settlements.
Inside Gaza
A five-year-old girl and two male relatives were killed in an airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, on Saturday when the Associated Press team saw them, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
The body of the girl in the pink sweater was wrapped in foil and placed on the floor of the morgue. His father knelt down and pressed his face to his. “God!” he shouted.
Another Israeli airstrike killed at least eight Palestinians, including two children and two women, in a shelter-turned-school in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense. 30 people, including 19 children, were injured in the attack on the Halava school, a shelter for internally displaced persons, in Jabaliya region.
In its new report, Amnesty International has accused the Israeli state of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war. Israel has strongly denied this claim and said it respects international law.
The Israeli army struck the Hamas command center in a former school in Jabaliya without giving a statement.
According to the spokesman of the Civil Defense, Mahmoud Basal, 4 people were killed as a result of an attack on one of the streets of Gaza City. In total, Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that at least 32 bodies arrived at hospitals in the last 24 hours.
“I ask the world, can you hear us? Are we there?” Hamza Saleh, one of the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, said he was displaced. He spoke on Friday as children and others huddled together for food aid in the southern city of Khan Yunis as hunger grew.
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