Amid media reports of progress in talks on a “truce for hostage release” deal in Doha, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summoned a select group of ministers to his office in Jerusalem for a 17-day security meeting. hours this Sunday, said an aide to one of the parliamentarians at Times of Israel.
The aide would not say whether the subject of the meeting, which was set amid a renewed effort to reach an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas before the US president’s inauguration- elected Donald Trump on January 20 was the question of hostages.
A Palestinian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Qatari media outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Sunday would be a “decisive day” for hostage negotiations in Doha.
To not miss any of the news,
receive the Daily Headline on your email
By registering, you agree to the terms of use
The source said the parties had managed to bridge the remaining rifts and were awaiting a decision from Israel after Netanyahu’s security meeting on Sunday evening.
However, three Israeli sources contradicted the Qatari report, telling public broadcaster Kann on Sunday that there had been no breakthrough, although progress was made over the weekend.
Ynet reported that, in a sign of real progress, the head of the Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, was due to fly to Qatar on Monday to take part in the negotiations.
Protesters holding candles and cut-out portraits of hostages held in Gaza during a demonstration, in Tel Aviv, January 4, 2025. (Credit: Jack Guez/AFP)
A mid-level Israeli team handling hostage negotiations met Friday with Qatari mediators, who were also hosting Hamas representatives in Doha for side talks. The administration of US President Joe Biden, which is participating in the talks, on Friday urged the terrorist group to accept a deal.
Army Radio reported that Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, far-right ministers who have said they would oppose the proposals put forward, were expected to attend Sunday’s security meeting with Netanyahu.
The discussion was scheduled after Hamas released a propaganda video on Saturday showing signs of life of hostage Liri Albag, 19, the latest in a series of footage released of Israeli captives who had been captured during the pogrom perpetrated on October 7, 2023 in southern Israel. These clips, like the intensification of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, were seen as attempts to exert pressure during the talks.
pounds, tatzpitani – or surveillance soldier –, was among 251 people, mostly civilians, who were kidnapped when some 6,000 Gazans, including 3,800 Hamas-led terrorists, stormed southern Israel from Gaza, October 7, 2023. Armed men massacred 1,200 people during an unprecedented outbreak of violence which targeted communities and bases military.
Hostage Liri Albag, in a sequence taken from a video published by Hamas on January 4, 2025. (Credit: Forum of Families of Hostages and Disappeared)
Netanyahu said in response to the video that Israel continued to work tirelessly to bring the hostages back to Israel.
“Anyone who dares to harm our hostages will bear full responsibility for their actions,” he said.
Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that indirect negotiations with Hamas for the release of the hostages had resumed in Qatar. His office told the Albag family that “efforts are underway to free the hostages, including the Israeli delegation which left [vendredi] for negotiations in Qatar.
Katz added that Netanyahu had given “detailed instructions for the continuation of negotiations.”
After the release of the Hamas propaganda video, which the Albag family had asked Israeli media not to broadcast, relatives of hostages held in Gaza urged people to take to the streets en masse during weekly Saturday evening protests . Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to demand a deal for the hostages, amid widespread speculation that a deal could be reached.
Channel N12 reported on Saturday that although talks in Doha progressed slowly over the weekend, there had been no breakthrough.
One of the main sticking points would be Hamas’s refusal to hand over a list of hostages it would release as part of the first phase of the agreement. This step is supposed to allow the release of women, men over 50 and men under 50 suffering from serious health problems.
Citing unnamed Israeli sources, the channel reported that Jerusalem was demanding the release of around 30 live hostages in the first phase. The list necessarily includes young men, all considered soldiers by Hamas because they are of fighting age.
A portrait of life-sentenced Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti, held in an Israeli prison, painted on a section of the Israeli security fence in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on December 24, 2024. (Credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP )
The obstacle to the Doha hostage talks between Israel and Hamas remains the number and names of hostages to be released in the first round, an Israeli official told Times of Israel.
Israel does not believe it can achieve a second phase, according to the official, and is therefore striving to maximize the number of hostages released in the first phase.
“We hope this will give momentum to another agreement,” the official said, adding that Hamas “is not going to release everyone.” He has no interest in doing so. Unless Israel says this is the end of the war, and Israel will not say such a thing.”
Hamas has still not published a list of living hostages.
The security meeting organized on Sunday evening was to take place on Monday, but it was brought forward, the official said. The focus is on Lebanon, but the hostage negotiations in Doha will be discussed.
Channel N12 also reported that Hamas was demanding the release of high-security Palestinian prisoners in exchange for these hostages.
Previous reports claimed that Hamas had requested the release of senior Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, although Netanyahu’s office said in December that “terrorist Marwan Barghouti will not be released if and when an agreement is reached to release the hostages.”
Barghouti, 64, is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for participating in planning three terrorist attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.
A report on Saturday by Saudi-owned al-Arabiya channel resonated with Israeli media, with anonymous sources saying the two sides could reach an agreement on all outstanding issues as early as this week.
The report, which was also carried by the Saudi channel al-Hadath, claimed that Hamas had shown flexibility towards Israeli demands regarding the hostages held in the Gaza Strip for almost fifteen months.
On Friday, a senior Israeli official told Axios that the parties were still deadlocked on almost all negotiated issues, including the continued Israeli military presence in the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, the Israeli demand to expel certain Palestinian security prisoners who will be released under the agreement, the frequency with which hostages will be released and the start date of negotiations on the second phase of the agreement.
The Israeli official said negotiations were moving very slowly, but he also expressed “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached in the coming weeks, particularly given increased pressure on Hamas from the Qatari and Egyptian mediators – and also because of threats from Trump, who warned that there would be “a TERRIBLE price to pay” if the hostages were not released by his inauguration.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken responding to a question from the public, at the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York, December 18, 2024. (Credit: Charly Triballeau/AFP)
“All remaining loopholes can be closed. We want to do it and reach an agreement, and we think the other side wants it too,” the official told Axios.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his Egyptian counterpart to discuss the ongoing hostage negotiations, which Cairo is helping negotiate with the United States and Qatar, according to a State Department statement.
An estimated 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023 are still in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 hostages whose deaths were confirmed by the Israeli military.
At the end of November 2023, Hamas released 105 civilians during a week-long truce. Four hostages had previously been released. Eight living hostages were rescued by soldiers and the remains of 38 hostages were recovered, including those of three Israelis who were accidentally killed by the IDF.
The Palestinian terrorist group also holds two Israeli civilians who entered the Gaza Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
