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Netanyahu Hints at New Hamas Talks After Hostage Deaths
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a press conference with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 28, 2023. Photo: ABIR SULTAN POOL/Pool via REUTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to confirm on Saturday that new Qatar-mediated negotiations were underway to recover hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, after a source said Israel’s lead negotiator met Qatar’s prime minister.
Netanyahu sidestepped a question at a news conference about a meeting on Friday in Europe between his lead negotiator, Mossad head David Barnea, and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. However, he confirmed he had given instructions to the negotiating team.
“We have serious criticisms of Qatar, about which I suppose you will hear in due course, but right now we are trying to complete the recovery of our hostages,” he said, alluding to the gas-rich Gulf state’s ties to Hamas and Israel’s arch-foe Iran.
News of a new round of negotiations, first reported by Axios, came after Israel’s military disclosed that troops had accidentally killed three hostages who approached them with a white flag after having escaped their captors in Gaza on Friday.
Netanyahu said he would not divulge details of the talks.
“There is one mistake that we can make, which is to relay our calculations to Hamas, to the world,” he said. “We shall not be getting into the details of the negotiations.”
The Gaza war, triggered by a shock Hamas killing and kidnapping spree in south Israel on Oct. 7, has shaken regional and world powers as the Palestinian civilian toll spirals.
While pledging to destroy Hamas, Israel has also sought to recover hostages held by the Iranian-backed Islamist group.
Netanyahu vowed to maintain intense military pressure on Hamas in Gaza.
“The instruction I am giving the negotiating team is predicated on this pressure, without which we have nothing,” he said.
Mossad chief Barnea met Al Thani in Europe on Friday, a key mediator in the conflict in Gaza, a source told Reuters, while sources from Egypt suggested Israel appeared to be more open to a new deal with Hamas.
‘GET THE HOSTAGES BACK ALIVE’
Qatar and Egypt were mediators between Israel and Hamas in a deal that led to a week long truce at the end of November during which Hamas released more than 100 women, children and foreigners it was holding in exchange for 240 Palestinian women and teenagers freed from Israeli jails.
Axios said the Friday meeting was the first between Barnea and Al Thani since the November truce. The source who spoke to Reuters said Barnea returned to Israel early on Saturday to brief Netanyahu.
Two Egyptian security sources said Israeli officials appeared more willing, in calls with mediators, to strike a fresh deal for a Gaza ceasefire and release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the recovery of hostages.
The Egyptian sources said Israeli officials appeared to have changed their mind on some points that they had previously refused, but did not go into further detail.
There was no immediate response from Netanyahu government spokespeople to the Egyptian assessment.
Israel believes that another 20 or more of the 130 hostages still held in Gaza are dead. Families of the hostages held a rally on Saturday, demanding that Israel consider releasing senior Palestinian terrorists from jail in any new swap deal.
“The Israeli government needs to be active. They need to put an offer on the table, including prisoners with blood on their hands, and put the best offer on the table to get the hostages back alive,” said Ruby Chen, father of 19-year-old hostage Itay.
“We don’t want them back in bags.”
Hamas exiled leader Osama Hamdan said it would only release soldiers held captive in Gaza “until the entire aggression is stopped.” He said that would have to happen through a negotiated deal “according to the conditions set by the the resistance.”
In an apparent effort to sway Israeli public opinion, Hamas also released a video showing slain hostages and ending with the Hebrew warning: “Time is running out.”
The post Netanyahu Hints at New Hamas Talks After Hostage Deaths first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
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Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
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Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
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Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.