As Mossad head goes to Doha, Egypt proposes 2-day ceasefire for release of 4 hostages

While Hamas wants a comprehensive agreement that ends the war and keeps it in Gaza, Israel looks for initial deal to understand who calls shots after terror chief Sinwar killed

Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

Illustrative: Mossad chief David Barnea attends a farewell ceremony in his honor, at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh, on July 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
Illustrative: Mossad chief David Barnea attends a farewell ceremony in his honor, at the National Police Academy in Beit Shemesh, on July 14, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)

Mossad chief David Barnea flew to Doha on Sunday to discuss attempts to move toward a hostage release deal with CIA Director Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the officials will discuss “the various possibilities to restart negotiations for the release of hostages from Hamas captivity, based on recent developments.”

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by IDF troops earlier this month, a development Israeli and Western leaders have described as an “opportunity” to make progress on a deal that would see the release of some or all the hostages held in Gaza.

Hamas will not be involved in this round of meetings, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel, but could potentially join a subsequent round, with mediators shuttling between the terror group and Israeli negotiators.

Qatar hosts a number of top Hamas leaders on its territory.

Israel is exploring the possibility of a small deal designed to kick-start talks with Hamas about a comprehensive deal, said the official, and to understand Hamas decision-making after Sinwar’s death.

Then-senior Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar speaks during a conference in Gaza City, on November 4, 2019. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in a Cairo press conference on Sunday that his country had proposed a two-day ceasefire in Gaza to exchange four Israeli hostages for some Palestinian prisoners.

The Egyptian proposal — which would include 10 days of negotiations after the release of the 4 hostages — was presented by Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar last week to the national security cabinet, Channel 12 reported. Though most of the ministers and all the security chiefs present supported the idea, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir opposed it, according to the news outlet.

Netanyahu decided not to bring the proposal to a vote because of the initial two-day ceasefire before the hostages are released, said Channel 12, and sent Bar back to Egypt to improve the terms.

According to Al Arabiya, Hamas is willing to accept the Egyptian proposal as long as it is incorporated into its July 2 demands for a hostage deal. It also wants guarantees that Israel will commit to the Egyptian proposal being part of a comprehensive deal.

Hamas will present negotiators with a comprehensive deal for an immediate end to the war and a withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, and the exchange of a certain number of Palestinian detainees in return for the release of all Israeli hostages at once, Hamas officials told the Saudi channel Asharq News.

The offer is expected to be submitted following the meeting in Doha on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a ceremony marking the Hebrew calendar anniversary of the Hamas attack on October 7 last year that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel, Oct. 27, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP)

The unnamed Hamas source told Asharq, “We will listen to the offers [of the negotiators], but for our part, we prefer a comprehensive deal that takes place in one stage and ends the war once and for all, in return for a prisoner exchange under which all Israeli captives are released in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

Earlier in the day, Barnea attended the national ceremony honoring the Israeli forces who have fallen since the Hamas onslaught on October 7 last year.

In Egypt last week, according to The Wall Street Journal, Barnea offered Hamas leaders safe passage out of the Gaza Strip if they disarmed and freed the 101 hostages they are holding.

Hundreds of Palestinians, who are struggling with hunger due to a war in Gaza for more than a year, are seen waiting to buy bread from the only bakery in the area because of the closure of border crossings and the limited access to aid in Deir Al Balah, Gaza on October 25, 2024. (Ashraf Amra / Anadolu)

Hamas “swiftly” rebuffed the proposal, with Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas’s deputy leader for Gaza, saying the offer showed Israel misunderstood the terror group and risked extending the war for months or years, according to the report.

Although Egypt will not send a delegation to the talks, it has been closely involved in efforts to get the negotiating process up and running again. In addition to meeting with Barnea, it hosted a Hamas delegation last week to discuss the group’s expectations for a potential deal.

Barnea’s meeting with newly appointed Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad was productive, Ynet reported, and the two discussed a new proposal for a hostage release and ceasefire deal, as well as the importance of maintaining and strengthening security cooperation.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani addresses a press conference during the EU – Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in Brussels on October 16, 2024. (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Rashad’s meeting with Barnea followed the talks earlier in the week with Shin Bet chief Bar.

Before Sinwar was killed, Israel and Hamas clashed in indirect negotiations over whether a ceasefire would constitute an end to the war; over the numbers and identities of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners to be freed; over whether Israel would maintain control over the Gaza-Egypt border; over whether Israel would allow a return of residents to north Gaza; and more.

It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF. 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.

Senior Israeli officials pledged during the state ceremonies Sunday to do all they could to bring the hostages home.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the return of living and dead hostages is a “holy mission.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks at a memorial for IDF troops killed on October 7 and in the subsequent war, October 27, 2024 (Screenshot/GPO)

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stressed that not every goal can be achieved through military force.

“Returning the hostages to their homes demands painful compromises,” said Gallant. “We must do this for the hostages, for their families, for the soldiers who fell for this goal, for the IDF’s legacy, and in the name of the Jewish and national ethos.”

President Isaac Herzog called for seizing the opportunity to bring home hostages held in the Gaza Strip after the slaying of Sinwar, describing it as the “supreme task” facing the country.

On Friday, the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper published three documents allegedly handwritten by Sinwar, in which he laid out instructions for the captors of hostages. The report did not say when the documents were from.

People pass by a newly painted graffiti depicting Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, days after he was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, October 20, 2024. (AP/Oded Balilty)

The first document stresses the obligation to “take care of the lives of the enemy’s prisoners and keep them safe, since they are an important bargaining chip” to free Palestinian security prisoners. The document also included Quranic verses on the matter of hostage-taking, Al-Quds reported.

The second document includes data on 112 unnamed hostages held in three areas: Gaza City (14 hostages), central Gaza (25 hostages), and southern Gaza’s Rafah (51 hostages). A fourth group of 22 hostages is listed without a location.

The hostages in each location are broken down into different categories according to their gender, age — above or below 60, or young — and whether they are civilians or soldiers.

The document also notes that one Bedouin hostage was held in Gaza City, and four in Rafah, among them a 55-year-old man. The four are presumed to be Youssef Ziyadne and his three children, two of whom were released in a week-long ceasefire last November.

The third document includes a list of 11 female hostages who were released early on in the war, most of them during the November truce. The 11 hostages are listed with their names, ages, and whether they held foreign citizenship.

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