Israel's Mossad chief to visit Qatar on Wednesday for prisoner swap talks with Hamas

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - The head of Israel's Mossad intelligence service, David Barnea, will fly to Qatar on Wednesday for talks on a possible Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap deal with Hamas, according to Israeli media on Monday.

Barnea will meet with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, CIA Director William Burns, and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported.

A four-party meeting between Qatar, Egypt, the US, and Israel is expected to take place in Doha on Wednesday amid hopes of advancing the Gaza cease-fire talks.

The Mossad chief had visited Doha on Friday for discussions on resuming the indirect negotiations for a cease-fire deal with Hamas.

Meanwhile, the head of the Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, arrived in Egypt on Monday to take part in talks to resolve disputed points in the cease-fire talks, KAN said.

For months, efforts by the US, Qatar, and Egypt to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a hostage exchange and cease-fire have been hampered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rejection of Hamas' call to halt hostilities.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 38,200 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,900 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar