U.S. presses Israel on cease-fire again
Official: Washington seeks agreement that would free all hostages
CIA Director William Burns plans to travel to Europe to meet with senior Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials in a sign 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 U.S. officials.
U.S. 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, though the White House is hoping 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 intelligence 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. U.S. officials would not reveal the precise location of the meeting for security purposes and requested the precise timing of Burns’ trip not be disclosed.
At least some of the officials last met in Warsaw, Poland, in December, but those discussions stalled over Hamas’ insistence 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.
U.S. officials said Israel is now proposing a 60-day pause in the fighting in exchange for a phased release of hostages. That proposal, the U.S. officials said, could provide a basis for renewed talks.
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.
The talks were set to begin amid tensions between Israel and Qatar, which this week accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of hurting efforts to release the hostages after a leaked recording appeared to catch him criticizing the country.
In a recording broadcast Thursday on Israeli television, a voice that appears to be Netanyahu’s calls Qatar’s role as a mediator “problematic” because of its relationship with Hamas and criticizes the United States for extending its military presence in Qatar.
“These remarks if validated, are irresponsible and destructive to the efforts to save innocent lives, but are not surprising,” a Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed al-Ansari, said in a statement on social media Wednesday.
He said if the remarks were confirmed, Netanyahu would be “obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages.”
Netanyahu did not publicly respond to the Qatari comments.
Netanyahu said Sunday he would not accept a deal for a permanent cease-fire that left Hamas in control of Gaza. He has been under pressure from the right wing of his government to take more aggressive military action in Gaza, even as a debate rises about the feasibility of both eradicating Hamas and negotiating the release of the hostages.
About 240 people were taken hostage during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed an estimated 1,200 people. Israel has responded with a furious onslaught in Gaza in a war that has killed more than 25,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 100 people are still being held captive in Gaza, according to the Israelis.
On Thursday, families of some of the hostages tried to block aid from entering Gaza at a border crossing, 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.