Israeli official to NBC: Strong indications hostage deal will progress; Netanyahu tells families of hostages of need to be ‘discreet’

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

A senior Israeli official tells NBC News that “there are strong indications” that a hostage deal will progress, while adding that Israel’s government has yet to officially agree to the terms hammered out earlier this week in Paris.

The full cabinet has yet to see the terms of the full deal, says the source, though the war cabinet already debated it.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with 26 representatives of 18 hostage families in Jerusalem, and tells them that “our commitment is to bring everyone back.”

He adds that the details of those efforts must be discreet in order to work.

“The more publicity it this effort gets, the further away it gets, and the more discreet the efforts are kept – the greater the chance it has of succeeding,” Netanyahu says.

According to Channel 14, the families pressed Netanyahu to define the return of the hostages as the primary aim of the war, but he refused to do so.

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