Senior Israeli official indicates Netanyahu’s office harming hostage talks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was informed by Israel’s Mossad-led hostage negotiating team that the latest hostage deal proposal submitted by Hamas earlier today was far better than the “non-starter” offer submitted by the terror group last month, according to a senior Israeli official.

Nonetheless, the Prime Minister’s Office chose to issue a statement in the name of an anonymous “security official” indicating that talks were stuck over Hamas’s insistence on a clause barring Israel from resuming fighting after the first phase of the truce deal.

Netanyahu’s office then chose to wait several more hours before issuing a statement confirming that Israel had received Hamas’s latest response, the senior official says, appearing to accuse the premier of trying to harm the talks.