In a sign of progress in ceasefire talks on the war in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved sending David Barnea, director of the Mossad foreign intelligence agency, to Qatar for negotiations.
Netanyahu’s office announced the decision on Saturday.
However, it is not clear when Barnea would travel to Qatar’s capital Doha for the ceasefire talks between Israel and the Hamas.
Head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency and military and political advisers will also be sent to Qatar for the ceasefire meeting.
Netanyahu’s office said the decision followed a meeting with his defense minister, security chiefs and negotiators “on behalf of the outgoing and incoming US administrations.”
Officials from the Islamist group and Israel have been holding talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in the most intensive effort for months to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.
In the 15 months of raging war, only one brief ceasefire has been achieved in the earliest weeks of fighting.
The talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have repeatedly stalled since then.
On Tuesday, Hamas said it will free its remaining hostages only if Israel agrees to end the war and withdraw all its troops from Gaza.
But with the clock ticking, both sides accuse the other of blocking a deal by adhering to conditions that torpedoed all previous peace efforts for more than a year.
More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, Gaza’s health ministry had said on Thursday.
Families of the roughly 100 hostages still held in Gaza after being seized in the Oct. 7, 2023 militant attack that sparked the war are pressing Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring their loved ones home.
The recovery of two hostages’ bodies in the past 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.
Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said that a deal is “very close” and he hoped to complete it before handing over diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration.
