Intelligence chiefs hold Doha summit in effort to close hostage deal

Negotiations to secure a hostage deal and Gaza ceasefire will resume in Doha on Wednesday, with the intelligence chiefs of Egypt, the United States, and Israel in attendance, Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV and sources said on Tuesday.

The Egyptian security delegation in Doha, led by intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, will be “on a mission to bring viewpoints closer between Hamas and Israel in order to reach a truce agreement as soon as possible,” Al Qahera News quoted a senior source as saying.

“There is an agreement over many points,” the source said, adding the negotiations will be back in Cairo on Thursday.

Mossad chief David Barnea will also attend the meeting, a source close to the talks who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters.

US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns will also attend, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters after he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Tuesday.

Sisi affirmed in the meeting the Egyptian position “rejecting the continuation of military operations in the Gaza Strip,” the presidency said in a statement.

Egypt and Qatar have been spearheading mediation in the nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas in hopes of ending the fighting and securing the release of hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

Spearheading mediation

Senior US officials were in the region to push for a ceasefire after Hamas made concessions last week, but the Palestinian terrorist group said a new Israeli assault on Gaza on Monday threatened truce talks at a crucial moment, and it urged mediators to rein in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sisi stressed in his meeting with Burns the need to take “serious and effective steps” to prevent the expansion of the Gaza conflict in the wider region, the presidency added.

US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “We continue to work hard to pursue a ceasefire.

“We have made progress. We certainly think we’re closer to a deal than we were a few weeks ago, but that doesn’t mean we’ll get one,” Miller said.

Oftentimes, the hardest issues are saved for the final stretch of the talks, such as the ones taking place now, he said.

“So even when a deal seems within reach, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get one. All we can do is continue to make clear that this deal is in the interests of Israel. It’s in the interests of the Palestinian people in Gaza. It would alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. So we hope we’re able to come to an agreement as soon as possible,” he said.

At issue is a three-phase proposal US President Joe Biden unveiled on May 31, which would see a lull to the war doing its first phase in exchange for the release of 33 out of the 120 remaining hostages.

Those set to be released are the humanitarian hostages, such as women, children, the elderly, and the sick. The question of a permanent ceasefire will be debated during that first stage, starting on day 16.

Hamas had initially demanded that Israel promise to adhere to a permanent ceasefire and to withdraw the IDF from Gaza before it would release any of the hostages. It then rescinded that demand, a step that allowed the talks to move forward in the last week.

Israel has rejected attempts to put in place a permanent ceasefire until the hostages are released and Hamas has been eliminated. It has insisted that a deal should take place within the framework of the Biden proposal and explained that this plan would allow it to achieve its war goals.

The stakes for a deal are high, not just because the hostage lives depend on it, but because Hezbollah has linked an end to its cross-border war with the IDF in the North to a Gaza ceasefire in the South.

US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said “the best thing for Israel, for the region, for the United States [and the] world would be a diplomatic resolution that avoids an all-out war [with Lebanon], which could be devastating in Israel and in Lebanon and could have massive effects, both in terms of human life and economic activity.”

Lew spoke at an economic conference at Reichman University, as he recalled that US envoy Amos Hochstein had made multiple trips to the region to put in place a diplomatic resolution to the violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border.

“If there is an all-out war, it will be a bad war, a costly war and it will not be something that leaves Israel in a better place or the region in a better place,” Lew said.

“That is why we are investing everything we have in the hostage negotiations,” he said.