Israel’s Netanyahu sends Mossad director to Gaza cease-fire talks in sign of progress

DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip —  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending the director of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency to cease-fire negotiations in Qatar, his office said Saturday, in a sign of progress in talks on the war in Gaza.

It was not immediately clear when David Barnea would travel to Qatar’s capital, Doha, for the latest round of indirect talks between Israel and the Hamas militant group, but there is U.S. pressure for a deal before the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20. Barnea’s attendance would mean high-level Israeli officials who would need to sign off on any agreement are now involved.

Just one brief cease-fire has been achieved in 15 months of war, and that was in the earliest weeks of fighting. The talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly stalled since then.

Under discussion is a phased cease-fire, with Netanyahu signaling he is committed only to the first phase, a partial hostage release in exchange for a weeks-long halt in fighting.

Hamas has insisted on a full Israeli troop withdrawal from the largely devastated territory, but Netanyahu has insisted on destroying Hamas’ ability to fight in Gaza.

More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war and more than 109,300 wounded, Gaza’s Health Ministry says. Those figures do not differentiate between fighters or civilians, but officials says women and children make up more than half the fatalities.

Also being sent to Qatar are the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency and military and political advisors. Netanyahu’s office said the decision followed a meeting with his defense minister, security chiefs and negotiators “on behalf of the outgoing and incoming U.S. administrations.”

Mourners react next to the grave of 23-year-old hostage Hamzah AlZayadni during his funeral in the Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel on Friday.

(Ariel Schalit / Associated Press)

The office also released a photo showing Netanyahu with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who was in Qatar.

Families of the roughly 100 hostages still held in Gaza after about 250 were seized in the Oct. 7, 2023, militant attack that killed about 1,200 people and sparked the war are pressing Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring their loved ones home. Israelis rallied again Saturday night in Tel Aviv, with photos of hostages on display.

The recovery of two hostages’ bodies in the last week renewed fears that time is running out. Hamas has said that after months of heavy fighting, it isn’t sure who is alive or dead.

“Return with an agreement that ensures the return of all hostages, down to the last one — the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial in their homeland,” said a statement by a group representing some hostages’ families.

Israel and Hamas are also under pressure from outgoing President Biden and Trump to reach a deal before the Jan. 20 inauguration.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said recently that a deal is “very close” and he hoped to complete it before handing over diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration. But U.S. officials have expressed similar optimism on several occasions over the last year.

Issues in the talks have included which hostages would be released in the first part of a phased cease-fire deal, which Palestinian prisoners would be released and the extent of any Israeli troop withdrawal.

A truce in November 2023 freed more than 100 hostages, while others have been rescued or their remains have been recovered over the past year.

Inside Gaza

On Saturday, an airstrike killed a 5-year-old girl and two male relatives in Deir al Balah in central Gaza, according to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an AP team saw them.

The girl’s body, in a pink sweater, was wrapped in a foil blanket and placed on the floor of the morgue. Her father knelt and pressed his face to hers. “God!” he cried.

Another Israeli airstrike killed at least eight Palestinians, including two children and two women in a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza, according to the Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government. It said the strike on the Halawa school that shelters displaced people in the Jabaliya area also wounded 30 others, including 19 children.

Israel’s military said it struck a Hamas command center at a former school in Jabaliya, without giving evidence.

And a strike killed four people on a street in Gaza City, said Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal. Overall, Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 32 bodies had arrived at hospitals over 24 hours.

“I ask the world, do you hear us? Do we exist?” said Hamza Saleh, one of the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents who have been displaced. He spoke Friday in the southern city of Khan Yunis as children and others jostled for food aid, while hunger grows.

Israel’s military announced the deaths of four soldiers in northern Gaza on Saturday, but did not provide details. At least 400 soldiers have been killed in the war. Six others were killed over the last week in largely isolated northern Gaza, where Israel has been pressing an offensive against regrouping Hamas militants.

The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants during the war, without providing evidence.

Associated Press writer Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Melzer from Nahariya, Israel.