Israeli delegation talks of ‘positive atmosphere’ amid returning from Paris talks

By Zain Khalil

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli media said on Saturday that the Israeli negotiating delegation returned from Paris and spoke of “good negotiations and a positive atmosphere.”

“The Israeli delegation participating in the talks to reach a new agreement to release the hostages, which took place in Paris, returned to Israel early in the morning,” the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

It quoted unnamed informed officials saying that the negotiations were “good, and even lasted longer than planned.”

“There is still a way to go," they added.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Channel 13 quoted an Israeli political official as saying: “There is significant progress in the negotiations. This creates the appropriate conditions for an exchange deal.”

“The Israeli delegation reached an agreed upon plan with which negotiations could begin and the list of names could be discussed,” he added.

The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said that “the Paris talks centered around four Hamas demands that Israel opposes.”

It noted that Hamas "demanded the return of all residents of the northern Gaza Strip and the evacuation of all Israeli army forces from the area."

It said that agreeing to this demand "means the return of Hamas to control the northern Gaza Strip."

“There are three other issues in dispute: increasing humanitarian aid, the duration of the cease-fire, and the number of Palestinian prisoners who will be released,” it added.

Talks began on Friday afternoon in the French capital Paris, with the participation of an Israeli delegation headed by Mossad chief David Barnea, CIA chief William Burns, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, in an attempt to reach a hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

A cease-fire between Hamas and Israel had previously been reached for a week from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1, mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US, during which hostilities were halted, prisoners were swapped, and extremely limited humanitarian aid was delivered to Gaza.

Israel believes that 134 Israelis are still being held in Gaza, while it holds at least 8,800 Palestinians in its prisons, according to official sources from both parties.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,600 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities. Nearly 70,000 people have been injured.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi