Israel yet to receive new hostage deal formula from mediators, official says
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Israel still has not received a new formula for a hostage deal from the United States, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel.
Mossad chief David Barnea was in Qatar last week to try to find a way to make progress in the talks, but currently there are no teams in Doha or Cairo.
The Americans are being cautious and are trying to avoid presenting a proposal that is likely to be rejected, says the Israeli official.
The official says that on the Philadelphi Corridor, Israel is willing to show some flexibility on the deployment and number of troops on the Gaza-Egypt border but will not withdraw fully.
A major focus of Israel’s Gaza campaign moving forward will be destroying the pillars of Hamas’s civil rule in Gaza, especially the distribution of humanitarian aid, which Israel sees as a core component of the terror group’s ability to show that it still controls the lives of Palestinians in the Strip, the Israeli official says.