Israeli delegation returning to Israel after concluding Doha talks on Gaza cease-fire

JERUSALEM

The Israeli negotiating team is set to return to Israel late Friday after concluding talks in Doha on a possible Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap deal.

Israeli news website Ynet said the Israeli delegation will return from Qatar on Friday evening.

The Israeli delegation consists of Mossad Director David Barnea, general security service Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, Israeli army hostages chief Nitzan Alon, and other defense officials.

The talks in Doha concluded with the presentation to the warring parties of a proposal that reportedly narrows the gaps between them and is consistent with the principles set out by US President Joe Biden on May 31.

Last May, Biden said Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a cease-fire, a hostage-prisoner exchange, and the reconstruction of Gaza.

For months, the US, Qatar, and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’s demands to stop the war.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Israeli onslaught has since killed over 40,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 92,000 others, according to local health authorities.

Over 10 months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara