Israel Security Agency Director Ronen Bar secretly visited Cairo on Sunday night, where he met with Egypt’s intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Kamal, according to journalist Barak Ravid.
Reporting on Israeli news site Walla, Ravid said the visit marks the first by a senior Israeli official to Egypt since Aug. 22, when Bar, Mossad Director David Barnea and the head of IDF Strategy Division Gen. Eliezer Toledano visited Cairo.
Bar discussed with Kamel ways to “resume negotiations on the Gaza hostage deal and re-engage with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar,” Ravid reported, citing an unnamed source.
Also discussed were ways to end the disagreement over the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing, which has created a rift between Israel and Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that IDF troops would remain in the corridor, which Egypt opposes.
Last week, on the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. (res.) Gal Hirsch, Jerusalem’s point man on the hostage issue, said Israel will continue to do everything in its power to free the 101 hostages Hamas is still holding in Gaza.
“Negotiation efforts and moves related to negotiations are taking place constantly,” he said at the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism at Herzliya’s Reichman University. “The problem is the time it is taking.”
Jerusalem is still “unable to get to effective negotiations with Hamas, which torpedoes talks all the time,” Hirsch said. “I am happy that this is said publicly by our friends in the United States, including U.S. Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken, [White House envoy] Brett McGurk and others.”
The retired general went on to state that, “During every situation assessment and discussion in the Cabinet, we note the situation of the hostages and the ticking clock.”
According to the Israeli negotiator, there is a “direct and immediate” link between pressure put on the Jewish state by its allies and Hamas’s ongoing refusal to negotiate a hostage deal in good faith.
“The idea of ‘no daylight between us and our allies’ is important,” he said. “Hamas identifies every ‘daylight,’ every sliver of light, and whenever it identifies ideas like ‘we won’t give you ammunition,’ arms embargoes,” this sets back talks, he said.
His comments came as it was announced that Israeli hostage Idan Shtivi, previously believed to be alive in Hamas captivity, was declared to have been killed on Oct. 7, 2023.
Shtivi, 28, was murdered by terrorist infiltrators along with his friends while they were attempting to escape from the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel.
