Mossad chief returns to Israel following talks in Rome on cease-fire, hostage swap deal

By Said Amori

JERUSALEM (AA) - The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, returned to Tel Aviv on Sunday after taking part in four-party talks in Rome in the latest push for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and hostage swap deal with Hamas.

Israel is holding at least 9,500 Palestinians in its prisons and estimates that there are 115 Israeli hostages in Gaza. Hamas has announced that more than 70 prisoners were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the enclave.

“At the (Rome) meeting, the sides discussed the document with the clarifications regarding the draft agreement conveyed from Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on X.

"The negotiations on the main issues will continue in the coming days,” it added.

For months, the US, Qatar and Egypt have been trying to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas to ensure a prisoner exchange and cease-fire and allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

But mediation efforts have been stalled due to Netanyahu’s refusal to meet Hamas’ demands to stop the war.

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 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 39,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 90,800 injured, according to local health authorities.

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

Israel is 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 more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala in Istanbul