Israeli negotiators head to Qatar amid some reported progress in hostage talks
After reports that talks had reached an impasse, both Israel and Hamas signal negotiations will resume on Friday; hostage families forum: ‘We can’t miss this window of opportunity’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had okayed sending an Israeli delegation for talks in Qatar on a hostage-ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip.
The latest announcement came after reports in recent days indicated that the negotiations between Israel and Hamas had reached an impasse.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that “Netanyahu authorized a working-level delegation from the Mossad, Shin Bet and IDF to continue negotiations in Doha.”
The Israeli delegation reportedly departed on Friday.
A delegation from the Hamas terror group was also expected in Doha to continue the negotiations.
An unnamed official told Channel 12 that the decision came after there was “progress in recent days.”
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.
Hebrew media outlets also reported that both Defense Minster Israel Katz and Gal Hirsch, the government point man on the hostages, separately expressed to the hostages’ families that the talks had not reached a deadlock and that while there was still progress, it had slowed due to some difficulties surrounding Hamas’s demands.
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 told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that there was not a plan to send negotiators to either Qatar or Egypt. It was not clear what had changed by Thursday.
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.”
Another Hamas official, Jihad Taha, told the Qatari outlet that the Hamas delegation had met with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo “in order to overcome the obstacles and conditions put recently by the Israeli side with the goal to continue the aggression against our people,” adding that “Hamas is dealing positively and openly with all the issues.”
Al-Araby al-Jadeed reported that talks in Cairo revolved around the possibility of postponing negotiations on some sticking points until after the first stage of a ceasefire has been implemented.
The paper claimed that the proposal, to which it said Hamas has agreed, would be submitted to the Israeli side in an attempt to reach an agreement before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20.
The terror group has insisted that it cannot produce a list of living hostages while fighting continues, and according to Kan news has proposed that Israel agree to a seven-day ceasefire that would allow it to put together the names of hostages that it can release in a potential deal.
During the week-long ceasefire, no hostages would be released, but Israeli troops would be allowed to remain in Gaza and displaced Gazans would remain barred from returning to the northern part of the Strip, the report said, noting that Israel was unlikely to accept such a proposal.
Arab mediators told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that negotiations had reached an impasse as both sides had doubled down on demands the other would not accept, and would not likely produce a deal before the end of US President Joe Biden’s term.
According to that report, Israel has insisted that only living hostages be released in the first stage of a potential deal, while Hamas has insisted that the first 30-odd hostages returned include dead bodies. The terror group has also gone back to its demand that the deal lead to a permanent end in fighting, to which Israel refuses to commit.
On Tuesday night, Trump reiterated his warning to Hamas to release the hostages. “They better let the hostages come back soon,” he said.
On Thursday, Channel 12 reported that Trump had spoken with the family of deceased US-Israeli hostage Omer Neutra, and that he had assured them that his administration will do everything possible to return Omer’s body to Israel for burial.
Trump also reportedly told the Neutra family that his appointed special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, was the right man at the right time to secure the hostages’ release.
Israel believes that pressure from Trump could have an effect on the stalled talks. Officials hope he will make clear to Qatar and Turkey — countries that host Hamas political leaders — that if a deal is not reached, they will pay a price.
Israel believes that 96 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, remain in the Strip, a figure that includes the bodies of at least 34 captives confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during last November’s truce, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
