David Barnea, the director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, met with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha on Thursday.
According to the Israel Hayom daily, they discussed the possibility of restarting negotiations for a hostage deal with the Hamas terrorist group.
However, an Israeli political source told Kan News that Barnea traveled to Doha “on Mossad-related matters, not regarding the negotiations for a hostage deal.” He also made clear in the meeting with Sheikh Mohammed that “a partial deal, one where only some of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip are recovered, is off the table,” according to the source cited by Kan News.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday night that Israel would only agree to end the war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a deal freeing all remaining hostages.
“We realized that they were basically misleading us and, in any case, would keep many hostages in their hands, both alive and dead,” the premier told i24News regarding the negotiations for a partial deal.
“We want them all, I want them all, both the living and the dead,” said Netanyahu. “I want to bring them all back as part of ending the war, but under the conditions of ending the war on our terms.
“As part of the discussion on our terms—the release of all the hostages, both the living and the dead—we are at the stage of a single deal; there is no going back,” he said.
Israeli negotiators are still seeking to pursue a deal that would include the release of all hostages, an end to the war, a full withdrawal of the IDF from the Strip and arrangements for post-war management, Israel’s Channel 12 reported on Tuesday, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
In an overnight announcement on Tuesday, Hamas confirmed that a delegation led by senior leader Khalil al-Hayya had traveled to Cairo at the invitation of the Egyptian government to hold talk with top officials regarding the “latest developments related to the war in Gaza.”
Taher al-Nunu, a Hamas official, said meetings would focus on “ways to stop the war in the Strip, bring in aid, end the suffering of the people in Gaza, address intra-Palestinian relations to reach national agreements on all political issues and discuss bilateral relations with Egypt.”
Of the 50 hostages who remain in captivity in the Strip, 20 to 22 are believed to be alive after being taken during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in the northwestern Negev.
