An agreement in sight? Israeli negotiators “have never been closer to an agreement” on the release of hostages in Gaza since the November 2023 truce in the war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli defense minister said Monday , Israel Katz.
“We have not been this close to an agreement on the hostages since the previous agreement,” the minister declared before members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Israeli Parliament, his spokesperson told AFP, confirming remarks by Israel Katz made during this closed session and quoted in the Israeli press.
Officials in Doha
Israeli officials arrived in Doha on Monday for discussions aimed at a ceasefire in Gaza and an exchange of hostages and prisoners between Israel and Hamas, a source close to the talks told AFP.
“An Israeli technical team is in Doha to discuss the ceasefire and the Gaza hostage deal,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions, adding that the meetings took place “between Israeli and Qatari work teams” and that they aimed to bring together the positions of the different parties.
Last truce in 2023
“Regarding the possibilities of reaching a prisoner exchange and ceasefire agreement between the occupation (Israel, Editor's note) and the resistance (Hamas and other Palestinian groups, Editor's note), I believe we are actually closer to the goal than we have ever been before, if (Israeli Prime Minister) Netanyahu does not intentionally derail things like he has done every time,” said at the AFP, under the speaking on condition of anonymity, a Hamas official contacted in Doha.
In November 2023, a one-week truce, the only one so far in the war triggered on October 7, 2023 by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Israeli soil, allowed the release of 105 hostages held in the Gaza Strip and that of 240 Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons.
All mediation efforts led by Egypt, the United States and Qatar since then to try to obtain a new truce have failed. At the beginning of November, Qatar announced that it was suspending its efforts, criticizing the two belligerents for their total lack of desire to reach an agreement.
