Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dispatched top intelligence and security officials to Doha, Qatar, for indirect talks with Hamas aimed at securing a ceasefire and the release of hostages. The talks, mediated by the US, Egypt, and Qatar, are facing increasing pressure to yield results before the US presidential inauguration on January 20. Both sides have shown commitment to the first phase of a phased ceasefire, involving a partial hostage release in exchange for a temporary halt in fighting. However, Hamas demands a full Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, while Netanyahu insists on dismantling Hamas' fighting capabilities
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel i Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending the director of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency toIt was not immediately clear when David Barnea would travel to Qatar ’s capital, Doha, for the latest round of indirect talks between Israel and the Hamas militant group, but there is U.S. pressure for a deal before the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20.
Also being sent to Qatar are the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency and military and political advisers. Netanyahu’s office said the decision followed a meeting with his defense minister, security chiefs and negotiators “on behalf of the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations.”still held in Gaza after being seized in the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack that sparked the war are pressing Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring their loved ones home.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week a deal is “very close” and he hoped to complete it before handing over diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration. But U.S. officials have expressed similar optimism on several occasions over the past year.have included which hostages would be released in the first part of a phased ceasefire deal, which Palestinian prisoners would be released and the extent of any Israeli troop withdrawal from population centers in Gaza.
Another Israeli airstrike killed at least eight Palestinians — including two children and two women — in a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza, according to the Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government. It said the strike on the Halawa school that shelters displaced people in the Jabaliya area also wounded 30 others, including 19 children.
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