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Israel Sends Delegation to Cairo Hostage Talks Despite Escalation
People walk past images of hostages kidnapped in the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hannah McKay
JNS.org – Israel’s negotiating team was traveling to Cairo on Sunday despite tensions in the north with Hezbollah.
The delegation reportedly consists of Mossad Director David Barnea, Ronen Bar, director of the Israeli Security Agency and IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, who heads the Missing and Captive Soldiers Division.
A foreign source told the Israeli news outlet that it’s still unclear how Hezbollah’s missile and drone attack will affect Sunday’s negotiations.
(According to Al-Madayeen, Hezbollah’s media outlet, the Iran-backed terror group said it had concluded its attack for Sunday, calling it a success. Israel said it successfully preempted the attack.)
Israel’s government has highlighted its efforts to free the remaining 109 hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel.
“This is a national mission of the highest order,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Aug. 18.
“Up until now, Hamas has been completely obstinate. It did not even send a representative to the talks in Doha. Therefore, the pressure needs to be directed at Hamas and [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, not the Government of Israel,” he added, referring to the terror group’s decision not to send representatives to the last round of ceasefire talks.
Hamas’s delegation arrived in Cairo this weekend, according to reports.
Negotiations have been “constructive” and media reports of a “near collapse” of the talks are inaccurate, White House national security communications adviser John Kirby told reporters on Friday.
“The process is actually moving forward. It’s moving forward in the way we had outlined earlier in terms of these next rounds of talks,” he said.
Last week, the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages who were abducted on Oct. 7, from a tunnel in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
The six men, who were alive when terrorists kidnapped them, were identified as Yagev Buchshtav, Alex Dancyg, Yoram Metzger, Avraham Munder, Chaim Peri and Nadav Popplewell.
Efrat Machikawa, the niece of Margalit Moses, 78, a cancer survivor who was freed from Gaza last November, and Gadi Moses, 79, who is chronically ill and remains in Hamas captivity, spoke to JNS on Sunday while en route to Dancyg’s funeral.
“Four of the six bodies that were recovered by the IDF last week were from Kibbutz Nir Oz. My parents belong to the group of pioneers who established the kibbutz,” explained Machikawa.
“My aunt and others were held with them in the tunnels; we know that they were alive. Yet they returned as bodies and while it gives us some sense of closure, it also angers us to know they could have been saved,” she said.
On Tuesday, Machikawa will also attend Peri’s funeral.
“I am always hopeful, and these days when people ask me what hope is for me, I say it is acting. We should not let the negotiators out of the room unless they seal a deal, and they should be given a full mandate,” she said.
“I am a 100% believer in cultural diplomacy. We have to bridge the gaps among all our cultures and talk diplomacy. This will bring us to an agreement,” Machikawa continued.
Last week, she co-signed a letter addressed to CIA director William Burns, Egyptian intelligence head Abbas Kamel and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, all of whom have played central roles in the hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorist-release talks.
“Your previous diplomatic efforts have already resulted in a deal that has set free more than one hundred hostages,” the letter stated in reference to the week-long November deal.
“We back your efforts to bring back all the remaining hostages, end the war in Gaza, prevent regional escalation, and pave a diplomatic path to healing and peace,” it continued.
“Signing a deal will be a decisive step forward on the way out of the disastrous status quo and towards a better future,” the letter added.
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Trump’s Travel Ban on 12 Countries Goes Into Effect Early Monday
US President Donald Trump attends the Saudi-US Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder
US President Donald Trump’s order banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States goes into effect at 12:01 am ET (0401 GMT) on Monday, a move the president promulgated to protect the country from “foreign terrorists.”
The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The entry of people from seven other countries – Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela – will be partially restricted.
Trump, a Republican, said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers’ identities, as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States.
He cited last Sunday’s incident in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian national tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. But Egypt is not part of the travel ban.
The travel ban forms part of Trump’s policy to restrict immigration into the United States and is reminiscent of a similar move in his first term when he barred travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned expressed dismay and disbelief.
Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Trump’s action.
“Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride,” he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the U.S. a luxury airplane for Trump’s use and promised to invest billions of dollars in the U.S.
Afghans who worked for the US or US-funded projects and were hoping to resettle in the US expressed fear that the travel ban would force them to return to their country, where they could face reprisal from the Taliban.
Democratic US lawmakers also voiced concern about the policies.
“Trump’s travel ban on citizens from over 12 countries is draconian and unconstitutional,” said US Representative Ro Khanna on social media late on Thursday. “People have a right to seek asylum.”
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Israeli Military Says It Struck Hamas Member in Southern Syria
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool
The Israeli military said on Sunday that it struck a member of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in southern Syria’s Mazraat Beit Jin, days after Israel carried out its first airstrikes in the country in nearly a month.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the strike.
Israel said on Tuesday it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel for the first time under the country’s new leadership. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa accountable.
Damascus in response said reports of the shelling were unverified, reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party.
A little known group named “Martyr Muhammad Deif Brigades,” an apparent reference to Hamas’ military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024, reportedly claimed responsibility for the shelling. Reuters, however, could not independently verify the claim.
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Israel Orders Military to Stop Gaza-Bound Yacht Carrying Greta Thunberg
FILE PHOTO: Activist Greta Thunberg sits aboard the aid ship Madleen, which left the Italian port of Catania on June 1 to travel to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid, in this picture released on June 2, 2025 on social media. Photo: Freedom Flotilla Coalition/via REUTERS/File Photo
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the military on Sunday to stop a charity boat carrying activists including Sweden’s Greta Thunberg who are planning to defy an Israeli blockade and reach Gaza.
Operated by the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the British-flagged Madleen yacht set sail from Sicily on June 6 and is currently off the Egyptian coast, heading slowly towards the Gaza Strip, which is besieged by Israel.
“I instructed the IDF to act so that the Madleen .. does not reach Gaza,” Katz said in a statement.
“To the antisemitic Greta and her Hamas-propaganda-spouting friends, I say clearly: You’d better turn back, because you will not reach Gaza.”
Climate activist Thunberg said she joined the Madleen crew to “challenge Israel’s illegal siege and escalating war crimes” in Gaza and highlight the urgent need for humanitarian aid. She has rejected previous Israeli accusations of antisemitism.
Israel went to war with Hamas in October 2023 after the Islamist terrorists launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing more 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to the enclave.
Katz said the blockade was essential to Israel’s national security as it seeks to eliminate Hamas.
“The State of Israel will not allow anyone to break the naval blockade on Gaza, whose primary purpose is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas,” he said.
The Madleen is carrying a symbolic quantity of aid, including rice and baby formula, the FFC has said.
FFC press officer Hay Sha Wiya said on Sunday the boat was currently some 160 nautical miles (296 km) from Gaza. “We are preparing for the possibility of interception,” she said.
Besides Thunberg, there are 11 other crew members aboard, including Rima Hassan, a French member of the European Parliament.
Israeli media have reported that the military plans to intercept the yacht before it reaches Gaza and escort it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The crew would then be deported.
In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded a Turkish ship, the Mavi Marmara, that was leading a small flotilla towards Gaza.
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