THE head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency will travel to Doha at the head of a negotiating delegation amid a renewed push to end the bloodshed in Gaza as both Israel and Hamas speak to mediators about a long-stalled ceasefire plan.
Sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli intelligence chief David Barnea will lead the delegation and will meet with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani before the start of a new round of negotiations.
News of Israeli negotiators returning to talks in Qatar follow after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden in a phone call on Thursday that he had decided to send a delegation to negotiate with Hamas. But Netanyahu also said the war in Gaza would only end after “achieving all its objectives”, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
That came after Hamas on Wednesday said it presented new “ideas” to Qatari, Egyptian and Turkish mediators on how to reach a ceasefire and captive-exchange deal.
Meanwhile, a US official told reporters in a call on Thursday that Hamas had shifted its position on a potential deal, without elaborating.
“We’ve had a breakthrough,” said the official, who spoke on background and cautioned that obstacles still remain.
Reporting from Amman, Jordan, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said that Israeli media was reporting that the Mossad chief would travel to Qatar for a new round of talks, though it was not known exactly when.
“All the signs are pointing to this perhaps having some sort of fruitfulness to them, meaning that there’s a good starting point for both sides,” Salhut said.
Reports of revived ceasefire talks came as Israel hammered southern Khan Younis – Gaza’s second-largest city – on Thursday, killing at least seven people in an air raid near its main hospital. The attack comes amid orders by the Israeli military for an estimated 250,000 Palestinians to flee the Khan Younis area.
With Gaza’s death toll surpassing 38,000 on Thursday and its inhabitants facing dire conditions, both Israel and Hamas are under increased international pressure to reach a truce – most recently based on a United Nations-backed plan outlined by Biden in May.
However, competing interpretations of that proposal, which break down the cessation of hostilities and exchange of captives into three stages, had brought negotiations to a standstill.
While the US insists Israel backs the plan, Netanyahu has repeatedly called it into question, promising not to end the war until Hamas is “eradicated”. Hamas wants a commitment that any agreement will end the war for good.
