Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that he had approved sending an Israeli delegation to Qatar to participate in negotiations regarding a hostage agreement and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
This announcement comes after recent reports indicating an impasse in discussions between Israel and Hamas.
The prime minister’s office said that “Netanyahu authorized a delegation consisting of Mossad, Shin Bet and the IDF to continue negotiations in Doha. » The Israeli delegation is expected to leave on Friday.
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A delegation from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas is also expected in Doha to continue talks.
According to an anonymous source quoted by the N12 channel, the decision was taken in light of “the progress made in recent days”.
The Forum of Families of Hostages and the Missing welcomed Netanyahu’s decision to send the negotiating team back to Qatar, saying “this is an opportunity we cannot pass up.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, enters the Knesset hall on December 31, 2024, for a budget vote. His doctor Tzvi Berkovitz is on the right. (Credit: Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
“The 100 hostages held deep in the Hamas tunnels have no time to waste with procrastinating negotiations. We demand that the Prime Minister give the negotiating team a clear mandate to reach an agreement allowing the return of all the hostages: the living to reintegrate and the dead to finally have the right to a dignified burial,” the Forum said.
Hebrew media also reported that Defense Minister Israel Katz and Gal Hirsch, the government official for the hostages, each assured the families that negotiations were not at an impasse but that, although progress had been made, they had experienced a slowdown due to certain demands posed by Hamas.
Throughout the past week, Israeli officials have been pessimistic over Hamas’s refusal to provide a list of names of living hostages likely to be released. An Israeli Defense official told the Times of Israel that no sending of negotiators to Qatar or Egypt was planned. The changes that occurred on Thursday remain undetermined.
A light installation calling for the release of hostages, visible in Habima Square in Tel Aviv, January 1, 2025. (Credit: Michael Giladi/Flash90)
Also expressing optimism, a senior Hamas official, Mousa Abu Marzouk, told the Qatari daily on Thursday al-Araby al-Jadeed “that there is a good chance that the negotiations will be successful this time.”
Another Hamas official, Jihad Taha, told the same daily that the Hamas delegation had met with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo “in order to overcome the obstacles and conditions that were recently posed by the Israeli side, which seeks to continue its aggression against our people.” He added that “Hamas approaches all issues in a positive and open manner.”
Al-Araby al-Jadeed reported that discussions in Cairo focused on the possibility of postponing some difficult negotiations until the first stage of a ceasefire is implemented.
Families of Israelis held hostage by Hamas terrorists and others demanding the release of the hostages light candles in memory of Israeli soldiers killed during the war, on the eighth night of Hanukkah, at Rabin Square in Tel -Aviv, January 1, 2025. (Credit: Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
The daily reported that the proposal, to which Hamas reportedly agreed, would be submitted to the Israeli side in an attempt to reach an agreement before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
The terrorist group has insisted that as long as fighting continues, it will not be able to produce a list of living hostages. According to the Kan channel, Hamas proposed that Israel accept a seven-day ceasefire to allow it to gather the names of hostages likely to be released as part of a possible agreement.
No hostages would be released during the week-long ceasefire, but Israeli troops would be allowed to remain in Gaza. Displaced Gaza residents would also not have the right to return to the northern part of the Gaza Strip. Kan stressed that Israel was unlikely to accept such a proposal.
Protesters gather for a rally calling for action to secure the release of Israeli hostages held captive since the October 7 attacks by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, outside the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, on December 28, 2024. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)
Arab mediators told the Wall Street Journal that negotiations were at an impasse, with both sides maintaining demands that the other cannot accept. They say a deal is unlikely to be reached before the end of US President Joe Biden’s term.
According to the American daily, Israel would have demanded that only living hostages be released in the first stage of a potential agreement, while Hamas would have insisted on including the remains of captives in the first returns. Moreover, Hamas has reportedly renewed its demand that the agreement lead to a permanent cessation of fighting, a condition that Israel categorically rejects.
On Tuesday evening, Donald Trump repeated his warning to Hamas, urging it to release the hostages. “They have an interest in releasing the hostages quickly,” he said.
On Thursday, N12 reported that Trump spoke with the family of Omer Neutra, a hostage with dual Israeli and American nationality, who was assassinated on October 7, 2023 and whose remains have since been in the hands of Hamas. He reportedly assured them that his administration would do everything possible to return her body to Israel so that she could receive a dignified burial.
Trump also reportedly told the Neutra family that his special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, was “the right man at the right time” to secure the release of the captives.
Melania Trump, right, listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks to reporters before the New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago, December 31, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Credit: Evan Vucci/AP)
Israel believes that pressure from Trump could influence the negotiations. Israeli officials are counting on him to make Qatar and Turkey – countries which host Hamas political leaders – understand that, in the absence of an agreement, they will pay the price.
According to Israel, 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 are still in the Gaza Strip, a figure that includes the remains of at least 34 captives whose deaths were confirmed by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during the November 2023 truce, and four hostages were released before then. Eight hostages were rescued by live troops, and the bodies of 38 hostages were recovered, including three hostages mistakenly killed by the Israeli army while trying to escape their captors.
Hamas also holds two Israeli civilians who entered the Gaza Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers killed in 2014.
