RSS
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.
The post Israel Sends Delegation to Cairo Hostage Talks Despite Escalation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.