Israel agrees to resume hostage talks with Hamas next week: state-run TV

JERUSALEM, Israel | Xinhua | Israel has agreed to renew talks with Hamas on a hostage deal next week, with the mediation of Egypt, Qatar and the United States, Israel’s state-owned Kan TV reported on Saturday.

According to the report, at a meeting in Paris on Friday, David Barnea, the chief of the Israeli Mossad intelligence agency, presented a new proposal approved by the Israeli war cabinet to William Burns, director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the three officials discussed the basis for continuing negotiations next week under the new proposals put forward by Egypt and Qatar, with the participation of the United States.

Kan TV reported that Burns had offered potential solutions to the contentious issues that had stalled previous negotiations, adding that the upcoming talks will be led by Egypt and Qatar, with active involvement from the United States.

The previous round of ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip, which took place in Egypt, collapsed earlier this month.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel that the movement “was not informed by the mediators of anything related to the resumption of negotiations.”

Hamdan added, “Today’s talk about new negotiations is not serious. We do not need new negotiations.”

He added that negotiations should aim to stop “the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, end the siege, and achieve a fair exchange deal.”

On Saturday, Gaza health authorities accused Israel of obstructing the wounded and sick individuals from leaving Gaza.

More than 20,000 wounded people and patients with cancer, heart and blood diseases are waiting for the Rafah border crossing to open in “inhumane conditions due to the occupation, siege and war of extermination imposed on civilians in Gaza,” spokesman Ashraf Al-Qedra said in a press statement.

Meanwhile, Egypt is continuing its efforts to resume negotiations between Israel and Hamas, according to media reports.

“Egypt is continuing its efforts to reactivate the ceasefire negotiations and the exchange of prisoners and detainees, and is also conducting intensive communications to restore calm in the Gaza Strip,” Egypt’s Al-Qahera News TV channel quoted an unnamed high-ranking source as saying on Saturday. ■