Mossad head travels to Doha for meeting with Qatari PM on hostage deal efforts
Trip signals David Barnea’s return to ceasefire talks after he was replaced as top negotiator by Netanyahu confidant Dermer, who hasn’t secured release of any more captives
Mossad head David Barnea traveled on Thursday to Qatar, an Israeli source told The Times of Israel, possibly marking the spy chief’s return to the hostage negotiating table after being demoted from the role two months ago.
According to Walla, Barnea will meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani there to discuss ongoing efforts to reach a hostage deal in Gaza.
While the Gulf state was often considered the primary mediator between Israel and the terror group Hamas, Egypt has recently taken the lead in negotiations, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.
A working-level Israeli team was in Cairo on Monday to speak with mediators, and a Hamas delegation traveled to the Egyptian capital on Tuesday.
The meeting appears to mark Barnea’s return to involvement in the hostage negotiations after he was replaced as lead negotiator by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the premier’s orders.
According to Israel Hayom, members of the negotiating team asked Netanyahu to bring Barnea back to a leading role in talks.
Dermer has been heavily criticized since assuming the role, including publicly by hostage families who have accused him of blocking potential deals and privately by other members of Israel’s negotiating team, who have reportedly said he doesn’t work with the necessary level of urgency.
No hostages have been freed since Dermer took over the helm beyond those whose release was already agreed upon before he became top negotiator.
Barnea’s flight to Doha coincided with a security cabinet meeting led by Netanyahu. According to Channel 12 News, some ministers were expected to pressure IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Eyal Zamir, who attended the meeting, to expand Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip.
The network reported Tuesday that several more hardline members of the cabinet have been pushing for Israel to launch a mass call-up of reserves ahead of a major military operation. However, Netanyahu and security chiefs believe that the current limited military operation to pressure Hamas is working and that there is still scope to give talks a chance to secure the release of the hostages.
While meeting with IDF officers in Gaza on Thursday, Zamir told them that if there is no hostage deal in the near future, the military will significantly expand its offensive against Hamas.
“We are continuing with the operational pressure and tightening the ring around Hamas as needed, and if we see no progress in the return of the hostages, we will expand our activities to an intense and even more significant move, until we reach the defeat [of Hamas],” Zamir said.
“Hamas is responsible for the start of this war. It now holds the hostages cruelly and is responsible for the difficult state of the population in Gaza. Hamas is mistaken when it comes to our abilities, intentions and determination, just like [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah and his top command,” he added, referencing Israel’s decapitation of the Lebanese terror group’s leadership last year.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 59 hostages, including 58 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 jailed Palestinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazan terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 59 hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.