Israeli official say Paris negotiators reached ‘outline’ for hostages-for-truce deal

The Israeli delegation returns from talks in Paris with cautious optimism that a deal can be reached to temporarily halt the fighting with the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip and see Israeli and foreign hostages released.

An Israeli official quoted by Hebrew multiple media sites says that an “outline of an agreement” was reached by the Israeli, American, Egyptian and Qatari representatives for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza war, sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacres.

“There were good talks, there’s significant progress,” Channel 12 quotes the official as saying. “We have a basis on which to build a plan and the negotiations.”

Haaretz quotes informed sources saying that the progress at the Paris summit will enable the sides to present to Hamas an updated framework for a deal. “Continuing progress is now up to Hamas,” it quoted an unnamed foreign diplomat saying.

The Israeli source says that the outline will first be presented to the war cabinet for approval, followed by the wider cabinet. The Maariv newspaper reports that the war cabinet is set to meet tonight to hear updates from Paris.

The next stage of the talks, according to the Israeli source, will focus on the central issue of which hostages held by terror groups in Gaza and which Palestinian security prisoners will be released in the truce, along with the specifics of the duration of the truce and the IDF’s deployment while it is in force.

The reports note that these details are yet to be agreed upon.

Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar were in Paris for the talks.