Netanyahu OKs sending Israeli intelligence chief to Qatar for Gaza ceasefire talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorized the dispatch of the director of the Mossad intelligence agency to broker talks in Qatar, his office said on Saturday, in a sign of progress in talks over the Gaza conflict.
It is not yet clear when David Barnea will go to the capital of Qatar, Doha, where there will be indirect talks between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas. His presence means that the top Israeli officials who will need to sign off on any deal are now involved.
Only a brief truce was achieved in the 15 months of the war, and that happened in the first weeks of the fighting. Negotiations brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have stalled since then.
Netanyahu insisted on destroying Hamas' fighting capacity in Gaza. Hamas has insisted on a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the heavily damaged area.
On Thursday, the Gaza Health Ministry said more than 46,000 Palestinians had been killed in the war, most of them women and children, although it did not say how many were soldiers or civilians.
Others sent to Qatar are the head of Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet and military and political advisers. Netanyahu's office said the decision followed a meeting with his defense minister, security chiefs and discussions “on behalf of the outgoing and incoming US administration.”
The office also released a photo showing Netanyahu with Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who was in Qatar this week.
The families of about 100 hostages still being held in Gaza after being captured in an October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war are pressing Netanyahu to reach an agreement to bring their loved ones home.
The discovery of the bodies of two hostages last week has renewed fears that time is running out. Hamas said after months of fierce fighting, it is not sure who is alive or dead.
“Come back with an agreement that guarantees the return of all the abductees, down to the last one – those who are still alive to be rehabilitated and those who died to be properly buried in their country,” said a statement from the group representing the families of the abductees.
Hamas and other groups killed about 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages in Gaza in attacks that started the war, according to Israeli figures. A peace deal in November 2023 freed more than 100 hostages, and others were rescued or their remains found last year. The Israeli army claims to have killed more than 17,000 soldiers in its war, without providing evidence.
Israel says it has struck dozens of Hamas targets in Gaza in the past 24 hours, in an attack that Palestinian health authorities say has killed nearly 100 people.
Israel and Hamas are also under pressure from outgoing US President Joe Biden and Trump to reach an agreement before the inauguration on Jan. 20.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that a deal is “very close” and he hopes to complete it before handing over diplomacy to the Trump administration. But U.S. officials have expressed similar optimism several times in the past year.
Issues in the talks include deciding which hostages will be released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which Palestinian prisoners will be released and the extent of any Israeli military withdrawal from civilian centers in Gaza.
Inside Gaza
On Saturday, an airstrike killed a five-year-old girl and two male relatives in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an Associated Press team saw them.
The body of the girl, wearing a pink sweater, was wrapped in paper and placed on the cold floor. His father knelt down and pressed his face to his. “God!” he cried.
Another incident in Israel killed at least 8 Palestinians including two children and two women in a school that has become a shelter in northern Gaza, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense. It said the Halawa school strike where people were attacked in Jabaliya area also injured 30 others, including 19 children.
Amnesty International has accused the state of Israel of killing Palestinians in the war in Gaza in a new report, allegations that Israel bitterly denies, saying it respects international law.
The Israeli military said it had raided a Hamas compound at an old school in Jabaliya, without providing evidence.
And the strike killed four people on the street in Gaza City, according to Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal. In total, the Gaza Ministry of Health said at least 32 bodies have arrived at hospitals in the past 24 hours.
“I'm asking the world, can you hear us? Are we there?” said Hamza Saleh, one of many of Gaza's 2.3 million residents who have been displaced. He spoke on Friday in the southern city of Khan Younis when children and others were clamoring for food aid, at a time when hunger was growing.
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