Mossad chief likely to lead Israel's negotiating team to Gaza cease-fire talks

By Said Amouri

JERUSALEM (AA) - Mossad chief David Barnea is likely to lead Israel's negotiating team in Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap talks with Hamas, public broadcaster KAN said on Thursday.

Israeli Channel 12 earlier reported that Netanyahu has agreed to send a negotiating team to engage in cease-fire talks with Hamas.

It, however, did not provide any details when and where the hostage swap and cease-fire talks will take place.

On Thursday, Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden during a phone call that Tel Aviv will not end the war on the Gaza Strip until "all its objectives are achieved."

The phone call came after Israel received Hamas' response to a prisoner exchange and Gaza cease-fire proposal.

On Wednesday, Israel said it had received Hamas' response to the Gaza cease-fire proposal via Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

While neither party disclosed the content of Hamas' response, Israeli media reported on Thursday that the response could serve as a basis for resuming negotiations.

Egypt, Qatar, and the US have been trying for months to secure a truce and the release of the 120 remaining hostages in Gaza, but to no avail.

Hamas says any deal must end the war and bring a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Israel, however, argues it will accept only temporary pauses in the fighting and wants to end the governance capabilities of the resistance group.

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

More than 38,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight 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 Rania Abu Shamala