On Thursday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved sending a delegation to Qatar to continue the Gaza hostage and ceasefire negotiations.
The delegation will include officials from Mossad, the country’s intelligence agency; Shin Bet or the Israeli Security Agency, the intelligence, technological, and operational organisation of Israel; and Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). In a statement, the Prime Minister’s Office said, “Netanyahu authorised a working-level delegation from the Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF to continue negotiations in Doha.”
Israeli officials expressed pessimism throughout the past week amid a refusal by Hamas to issue a list of names of live hostages it could release. An Israeli defense official said that there was not a plan to send negotiators to either Qatar or Egypt. It was not clear what had changed by Thursday. The delegation is set to leave on Friday as per the report. Also expressing optimism, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told the Qatari daily al-Araby al-Jadeed on Thursday that “there is a good chance that negotiations will succeed this time.”
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum welcomed Netanyahu’s decision to again send a negotiating team to Qatar, saying: “We can’t miss this window of opportunity.” “The 100 hostages held in the depths of Hamas tunnels don’t have time for foot-dragging in the negotiations. We demand that the prime minister give the negotiating team a mandate to reach an agreement that will see the return of every last hostage, the living to rehabilitation and the murdered for an honorable burial,” the forum said.
