Benjamin Netanyahu sends senior Israeli officials to ongoing negotiations in Qatar
The Israeli prime minister has instructed a delegation of senior officials to join ongoing negotiations in Qatar for a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in the Palestinian territory, his office announced.
According to the latter, Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting in Jerusalem in the presence of the special envoy for the Middle East of American President-elect Donald Trump, Steve Witkoff, a representative of the outgoing American administration, the Minister of Defense Israeli Israel Katz and Israeli security officials.
“At the end of the meeting, the prime minister instructed the head of Mossad (foreign intelligence), the head of Shin Bet (domestic intelligence), reserve general Nitzan Alon and his foreign policy advisor Ophir Falk to visit in Doha to continue promoting an agreement for the release of our hostages”his office said in a statement.
A decision welcomed by the Families Forum, the main association of relatives of hostages, while rallies take place like every Saturday evening in the country’s major cities to demand their release.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian movement Hamas resumed last weekend in Qatar with a view to a ceasefire in Gaza, but Israel was not represented by senior officials. These discussions focus on the release of hostages kidnapped during the unprecedented attack by the Islamist group Hamas on Israeli territory on October 7, according to several Israeli sources.
As Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20 approaches, outgoing US President Joe Biden announced Thursday that “real progress” in the negotiations. For his part, the Republican recently promised “hell” to Hamas if the hostages were not released before its return to power.
