War Cabinet to debate new proposal for a hostage deal

The War Cabinet convened Sunday night to debate new proposals for a hostage deal after a stretch of weeks in which negotiations to secure the release of the remaining 125 captives in Gaza had been at a standstill.

“The cabinet will discuss, among other things, the negotiations for the release of our hostages,” a senior official said.

That discussion will be “based on the new proposals that came up at the meeting” held in Paris over the weekend between Mossad Chief David Barnea, CIA Director William Burns, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammad al-Thani.

Talks place emphasis on Rafah, along with hostage deal

In addition, the source said, “the cabinet will discuss the continuation of the war in Gaza, with an emphasis on Rafah.”

According to CNN, hostage talks could resume as early as the coming Tuesday.

Qatar and Egypt, with the help of the US, have been attempting to mediate a deal since Hamas and other terror proxies seized 252 hostages during their October 7 invasion of southern Israel.

Izzat El-Reshiq, a senior Hamas official in exile, said the movement had not received anything from the mediators on new dates for the resumption of talks, as had been reported by Israeli media.

Reshiq restated Hamas’s demands, which include: “Ending the aggression completely and permanently, in all of Gaza Strip, not only Rafah. This is what our people are waiting for, this is the core issue and the starting point for anything.”

The possible resumption of talks comes as Israel pressed on with its military operation in Rafah, designed to both destroy the remaining Hamas battalion in that southern region of Gaza and to pressure Hamas to make a deal.

The International Court of Justice on Friday ruled that Israel had to halt any military operation in Rafah that would destroy the Palestinian group in whole or in part.

The vaguely worded order marked the first time the ICJ had attempted to interfere in Israel’s military campaign. 

It was so vaguely worded that the Palestinians claimed it meant Israel must stop its Rafah campaign, while Israel said the order allowed it to continue its targeted military actions.

Israel feared, however, that the ruling emboldened Hamas and made reaching a hostage deal more difficult. 

Hamas on Sunday, two days after the ICJ ruling, which did not limit its actions, launched an intense rocket barrage against southern Israel from Rafah for the first time in months. Israeli strikes, in turn, killed five Palestinians in Rafah.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to “Zionist massacres against civilians.”

To emphasize Israel’s determination to destroy the Hamas threat in Rafah, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited troops there in advance of the war cabinet meeting.

“Efforts to return the hostages [home] are ongoing, even at this very moment. Our goals of returning the hostages and dismantling Hamas are emphasized by our actions in Rafah,” he said.

“Regarding the hostage issue – we are making tremendous efforts and will continue to do so, via both kinetic activities and by reaching agreements,” Gallant said.

He told the soldiers, “Your job is to eliminate Hamas, to win this war. Our job is to take [your achievements] to the next level in Gaza and across the Middle East. These issues are connected.”

Despite his optimism, public calls have grown, particularly among many of the families of the hostages and their supporters, for Israel to make a deal and end the war now, even without a Rafah victory.

One of the sticking points to the deal has been Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire and Israel’s insistence on the importance of ending the war.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics have charged that he is responsible for the absence of the deal.

Channel 12 reported on Sunday that one of the main hostage negotiations, Maj.-Gen. Nitzan Alon, told some of the relatives of the hostages last week, “We are exhausted. There can be no deal with the existing government.

“The deal I’m advocating for will include the gradual return of all the hostages,” he said. “Hamas is adamant that it must stipulate an end to the fighting. I told the Prime Minister that it would be possible to return to fighting at any given moment,” Alon said, according to Channel 12.

His statement, however, was made last week, before movement had begun with respect to a hostage deal.Netanyahu, however, shot back almost immediately to the Channel 12 report.

His office stated that while Netanyahu “has repeatedly given the negotiating team a broad mandate for the release of our hostages, [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar continues to demand the end of the war, the withdrawal of the IDF from the Gaza Strip and leaving Hamas in place, so that it will be able to carry out the atrocities of October 7 again and again.”

Netanyahu is “strongly” opposed to this, his office stated. It warned against leaks from the negotiating team. 

“Briefings from within the negotiating team only harden Hamas’s position, harm the families, and delay the release of our hostages,” Netanyahu’s office stated.

Separately, Israel continued on Sunday to advance the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

Advancing humanitarian aid into Gaza

Khaled Zayed of the Egyptian Red Crescent told Reuters that 200 trucks of aid, including four fuel trucks, were expected to enter Gaza on Sunday through Kerem Shalom.

This followed an agreement between US President Joe Biden and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Friday to temporarily send aid via the Kerem Shalom crossing, bypassing the Rafah crossing that has been blocked for weeks.

Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV shared a video on social media platform X, showing what it said were aid trucks as they entered Kerem Shalom, which before the conflict was the main commercial crossing station between Israel, Egypt, and Gaza.

The Rafah crossing has been shut for almost three weeks since Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the crossing as it stepped up its offensive.

Egypt has been increasingly alarmed at the prospect of large numbers of Palestinians entering its territory from Gaza and has refused to open its side of the Rafah crossing.