Officials acknowledge slow progress in hostage talks, but warn obstacles remain

Amid reports of progress in talks on a hostage-ceasefire deal in Doha, Israeli officials on Sunday sought to temper expectations.

The obstacle in the Doha hostage talks between Israel and Hamas remains the number and names of hostages to be released in the first round, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel.

Israel does not believe it can reach a second round, said the official, and is therefore working to maximize the number of hostages released in the first round.

“We hope that it will bring momentum to another deal,” said the official, adding that Hamas “is not going to release everyone [in a first stage].

“They don’t have an interest in doing that. Unless Israel says it’s the end of the war, and Israel will not say that.”

Hamas still hasn’t released a list of the living hostages, the official added.

A Palestinian source told Qatari outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that Sunday would be a “decisive day” for hostage talks in Doha.

The anonymous source said that the sides had been able to bridge the remaining gaps and were waiting on a decision from Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security consultation on Sunday evening.

However, a second Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the report was “nonsense.”

“There is progress, but it’s slow progress,” said the official.

Speaking to Kan news, three Israeli sources also contradicted the Qatari report, staying that there had been no breakthrough, though there was some progress over the weekend.

Netanyahu summoned a small group of ministers to his office in Jerusalem for a security meeting at 5 p.m. on Sunday, an aide to one of the lawmakers told The Times of Israel.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the focus of the meeting was the shaky ceasefire in Lebanon. The most recent meeting on the hostages was on Friday.

The official said that, in a sign of real progress, Mossad chief David Barnea was expected to fly to Qatar on Monday to take part in talks.

A mid-level Israeli hostage negotiating team held talks on Friday with Qatari mediators, who were also hosting Hamas representatives in Doha for parallel discussions. US President Joe Biden’s administration, which is helping broker the talks, urged the terror group on Friday to agree to a deal.

Hamas released a propaganda video on Saturday showing signs of life from 19-year-old hostage Liri Albag, the latest in a series of clips it has released of Israeli captives taken in the October 7, 2023, attack. Such videos, like an uptick in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, have been seen as attempts to exert pressure during talks.

Albag, a surveillance soldier, was among 251 people, mostly civilians, who were abducted when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists poured into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people as they rampaged through southern Israeli communities and military bases.

Netanyahu said in response to the video that Israel was continuing to work tirelessly to bring the hostages home.

“Anyone who dares to harm our hostages will bear full responsibility for their actions,” he said.

Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed that indirect hostage-truce negotiations with Hamas had resumed in Qatar. He told Albag’s family that “efforts are underway to free the hostages, notably the Israeli delegation that left [on Friday] for negotiations in Qatar,” his office said.

Katz added that Netanyahu had given “detailed instructions for the continued negotiations.”

Following the release of the Hamas propaganda video, which Albag’s family asked Israeli news outlets not to air, relatives of hostages held in Gaza urged the public to take to the streets en masse at the weekly Saturday night demonstrations. Thousands of people rallied in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to call for a hostage deal, as speculation swirled about a possible agreement coming together.

Channel 12 news reported on Saturday that although the talks in Doha had advanced slowly over the weekend, there was no breakthrough.

One of the main sticking points is reported to be Hamas’s refusal to hand over a list of hostages it would release in the deal’s first stage. This stage is supposed to see the release of women, men over the age of 50, and men under the age of 50 with serious medical conditions.

Citing unnamed Israeli sources, the network reported that with Jerusalem demanding some 30 living hostages be freed in the first stage, the list necessarily includes young men, all of whom are considered soldiers by Hamas due to being of fighting age.

Channel 12 also reported that Hamas was demanding the release of high-profile Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for such hostages.

Previous reports have claimed that Hamas has demanded the release of top Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, though Netanyahu’s office stated in December that “the terrorist Marwan Barghouti will not be released if and when a deal is made to release the hostages.”

Barghouti, 64, is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his part in planning three terror attacks that killed five Israelis during the Second Intifada.

A Saturday report from Saudi-based news outlet al-Arabiya echoed Hebrew media reports, with unnamed sources telling the station that the sides might be able to clinch agreements on all remaining outstanding issues as early as this week.

The report, which was also carried by Saudi Arabia’s al-Hadath news outlet, claimed that Hamas had shown flexibility on Israeli demands regarding the hostages held in the Strip for nearly 15 months.

On Friday, a senior Israeli official told Axios that the sides were still at an impasse over almost all topics being negotiated, including continued Israel military presence in the Netzarim and Philadelphi corridors, the Israeli demand to deport some Palestinian security prisoners to be released in the deal, the frequency at which hostages would be released, and the start date of negotiations over the deal’s second stage.

The Israeli official said that the negotiations were advancing very slowly but also expressed “cautious optimism” that a deal could be reached in the coming weeks, particularly because of increased pressure on Hamas from Qatari and Egyptian mediators, along with threats from Trump, who has warned there will be “all hell to pay” if the hostages were not released by his inauguration.

“All remaining gaps can be bridged. We want to do this and reach a deal, and we believe the other side wants to as well,” the official told Axios.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart to discuss the ongoing hostage negotiations that Cairo is helping mediate along with the US and Qatar according to a State Department readout.

Ninety-six 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 released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 38 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

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.

Jacob Magid contributed to this report.