US sees chance to make push for cease-fire in Gaza

CIA director heads to Europe for meetings By Julian E. Barnes, Hiba Yazbek, Aaron Boxerman, and Roni Caryn Rabin

CIA Director William Burns plans to travel to Europe to meet with senior Israeli, Egyptian, and Qatari officials, in a sign that the United States is pushing to secure a deal to release the hostages being held in the Gaza Strip and broker a prolonged cease-fire, according to US officials.

US officials said Israel’s apparent willingness to agree to a cessation of hostilities in return for the release of more hostages being held in Gaza has created a new opening for negotiations.

Any new deal would probably include phased releases of hostages, although the White House is hoping that a more ambitious one, possibly leading to the release of all of the remaining hostages, might be possible. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy.

Burns and David Barnea, chief of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, helped broker a deal in November that led to a weeklong pause in the fighting and the release of more than 100 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel. The talks were mediated by Qatar, which was negotiating with Hamas, as well as by Egypt.

Barnea and Burns are set to meet with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Abbas Kamel, head of Egypt’s intelligence service, for the renewed talks. US officials would not reveal the precise location of the meeting for security purposes, and requested that the precise timing of Burns trip not be disclosed.

At least some of the officials last met in Warsaw in December, but those discussions stalled over Hamas’s insistence that the remaining hostages be released in exchange for a permanent cease-fire and larger prisoner releases. Israel rejected any permanent cease-fire and was pushing for a shorter pause in fighting.

US officials said Israel was now proposing a 60-day pause in the fighting in exchange for a phased release of hostages. That proposal, the US officials said, could provide a basis for renewed talks. News of Burns’s travel was earlier reported by The Washington Post.

The Biden administration is eager to cut a deal that will halt the fighting for longer than the one-week pause that began in November and provide some breathing room to figure out what comes next.

On Thursday, families of some of the hostages tried to block aid from entering Gaza at a border crossing, as Gaza residents waiting for aid in the enclave were killed in a strike, according to local health officials. Photos from the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza showed a small group of demonstrators holding signs with the faces of hostages.

It was not immediately clear how many, if any, aid trucks had been blocked or forced to reroute by the demonstration. But a day earlier, Israeli protesters at the Kerem Shalom crossing held up aid trucks for several hours, according to the United Nations.