Report: Qatar, Egypt failed to deliver on promise to secure list from Hamas of hostages still alive

Israeli negotiators reportedly told Egyptian and Qatari brokers that they will not agree to participate in another round of truce talks unless Hamas presents a list of the hostages who are alive along with a more reasonable demand regarding the number of Palestinian prisoners it wants released.

The Axios news site reports that Egypt and Qatar promised Israel this week that if it agreed to send a negotiating team to Doha, they would secure a list of living hostages and pressure Hamas to come down from its demands.

But after three days of talks in Doha, the Israeli delegation returned home without any answers on either issue. “The mediators promised that Hamas would give numbers and that didn’t happen,” an unnamed Israeli official tells Axios.

Qatari and Egyptian officials on Thursday proposed another round of talks in Cairo next week, but Israel refused the offer, saying it would not continue to participate in talks unless it receives answers from Hamas regarding the hostages and Palestinian security prisoners, an Israeli official tells Axios.

“There is no point in starting another round of talks until we receive the lists of which of the hostages are alive and until Hamas gives its answer regarding the ‘ratio’ that defines how many prisoners will be released for each hostage,” the Israeli official says.

Senior Israeli officials say they are waiting to see whether US pressure exerted during President Joe Biden’s calls with Egyptian and Qatari leaders on Thursday bear fruit.