CIA, Mossad chiefs to hold ‘critical’ hostage talks with Qatari, Egyptian mediators
The director of the American spy agency, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the chief of the Israel Spy agency, Mossad, will be meeting the Prime Minister of Qatar in a European capital to reach a temporary ceasefire in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
The release of Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity will also be discussed in the meeting along with the temporary ceasefire.
The chiefs of Shin Bet and the Egyptian intelligence will also be present, according to Hebrew media.
CIA director William Burns and Mossad chief David Barnea will meet with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani to discuss the release of the remaining 132 hostages held by Hamas on October 7 and a pause in fighting in the Gaza Strip.
White House Middle East czar Brett McGurk was in Qatar and Egypt this week for talks on the same subject.
Israel’s war cabinet met on Thursday night at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv to discuss the hostage talks.
IDF hostage envoy Nitzan Alon and PMO hostage coordinator Gal Hirsch were also in attendance.
Burns and Barnea were involved in the earlier meeting with Qatari and Egyptian officials that led to a temporary weeklong ceasefire between November 24 and December 1, 2023, that saw 105 hostages freed.
Efforts to secure another agreement to release the remaining hostages, among them children and women, have since not yielded any desired results and hit a roadblock.
Sources in Israel’s defense ministry told IANS that while Israel was willing for a one-month ceasefire, Hamas wants a permanent end to the war which Israel has rejected outright.
Hamas has also insisted on the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from the Gaza Strip which was also rejected in toto by the Israel side.
On October 7, when Hamas terrorists swarmed into southern Israel and slaughtered 1,200 people, 240 people were kidnapped. Of this, 105 hostages were released during the one-week truce from November 24-December 1.
Four of the hostages were released early and a woman IDF soldier was rescued by the Israeli army. Three of the hostages were killed in an accidental fire by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). According to IDF and Israel Military Intelligence, 28 of the Israel hostages in Hamas captivity are dead.
Since the Israeli army began its counteroffensive, more than 25,000 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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Any resolution or cease fire will probably come only on release of the remaining hostages and rightly so. The world seems to have more or less forgotten that the remaining hostages consist of young women kept behind as sex slaves, some of them are pregnant as a result of multiple rapes over last 100 days, other women kept behind, including infants as better bargaining chips. The world may have different priorities, but for any nation the release would be the first. So long as this release is doubtful the Israely offensive will not stop, if they have to eventually sacrifice these lives the price to Hamas will be terrible. The entry of YEMEN will eventually draw in EGYPT with a massive loss of Suez Canal revenue. NO WAR ENDS WITHOUT A SUREENDER for a long term solution not cease fires. Both the World wars, the VIETNAM war the wars in IRAQ and AFGANISTAN and the Bangladesh War.