From the Liveblog of
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Netanyahu ready to give Mossad chief green light to fly to Doha tonight for hostage talks — reports
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leaning toward giving Mossad chief David Barnea the green light to travel to Doha tonight to join talks to secure a deal to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, according to Hebrew media reports.
Channel 13 news quotes two sources involved in the negotiations as saying that Netanyahu’s likely decision comes amid “general cautious progress” in the talks with mediators in Qatar.
A senior Israeli official says the high-level delegation will depart in the next 24 hours if Netanyahu decides to give the go-ahead, the network adds.
The report notes that Hamas has still not provided a list of living hostages to Israel.
Israeli analyst Ben Caspit cites sources close to the mediators as saying that Barnea has already been given the green light to travel to Qatar.
“He will leave in the coming hours or Saturday night. Unless there is a last-minute change, of course,” Caspit writes in a post on X.
The reports come after officials in Washington expressed cautious optimism yesterday about the prospects of closing a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza before the end of US President Joe Biden’s term. CIA Director William Burns assessed the ongoing negotiations in Doha as “quite serious,” while White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said he believes a hostage deal is possible before January 20.
Hebrew media has reported that the Mossad chief joining the talks is a key sign of real progress towards closing a deal to free 94 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 still held in Gaza.
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.
