Talks between US and Israeli spy businesses in Qatar, which is vital mediator, embrace concern of captives held in Gaza.
The heads of the US Central Intelligence Company (CIA) and Israel’s Mossad have met in Qatar to debate the extension of a truce between Israel and Hamas in addition to the captives being held by the Palestinian group in Gaza.
CIA Director William Burns and David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence service, held talks with Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, on Tuesday, a day after Doha introduced a two-day extension of an unique four-day humanitarian pause in Gaza that had been attributable to expire.
“We have to read a little bit between the lines here: [The intelligence chiefs were] important in the last meeting, which was on November 9. We believe that was one of the stepping stones getting us to the initial four-day deal,” Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays mentioned.
“The fact that we’ve got intelligence chiefs sitting here with the Qatari prime minister, who is also the foreign minister, is interesting because they’ve got the intelligence picture. But also I think it’s interesting partly because of who the US has got leading this effort,” he mentioned, including that Burns is “more experienced a negotiator than Antony Blinken”, america secretary of state.
Each Israel and Hamas have accused one another of violating the unique truce. However they’ve continued to swap captives for prisoners. Hamas has launched captives in its custody, with one other 12 freed on Tuesday.
Our groups have efficiently facilitated the discharge and switch of 12 hostages held in Gaza.
We now have been in a position to perform this operation due to our impartial middleman function.
— ICRC in Israel & OT (@ICRC_ilot) November 28, 2023
Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs, mentioned in a submit on X that 30 Palestinian prisoners are set to be launched.
On Monday, mediator Qatar mentioned a humanitarian pause in preventing between Israel and Hamas could be prolonged by two days, hours earlier than the preliminary four-day truce in Gaza was set to run out.
Qatar, the US and Egypt have engaged in intense negotiations to establish and prolong the truce in Gaza.
Over the course of the preliminary pause, Hamas launched 69 captives – 51 Israelis and 18 individuals from different nations.
In trade, 150 Palestinian prisoners– 117 kids and 33 ladies – held in Israeli prisons have been launched and extra humanitarian assist allowed into Gaza.
The talks between the US and Israeli intelligence chiefs and Qatar have been additionally attended by Egyptian officers.
“Is there a way that they can try and deal with the central problem here of keeping this [current truce] going while Israel at the same time wants to remove Hamas?” Bays requested.
“We don’t know anything from the information on the ground, but one possibility that some are suggesting is perhaps a deal could be done for the Hamas military leadership to be persuaded to go into exile in another country,” he mentioned.
“That’s certainly not what we’re hearing from Israeli media sources; the latest we’re hearing from them is that the Israeli government does not want an extension beyond 10 days in total, taking us until the end of Sunday,” in response to Bays.
In the meantime, far-right Israeli Minister for Nationwide Safety Itamar Ben-Gvir known as on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to permit troopers to return to preventing in Gaza to “crush Hamas” as he reacted to a military assertion that three explosive units have been detonated in two places close to troops in northern Gaza.
“We must not wait until our fighters are killed. We must once again act in accordance with the goal of the war: the total destruction of Hamas,” the minister posted on X.
