negotiation Israel and Hamas Talks to reach an agreement to free Israeli hostages being held in the Gaza Strip are set to resume next week, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News on Saturday, and will involve negotiators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
“There is progress,” a Biden administration official told CBS News. “Contacts are continuing and we are working closely with intermediaries in Egypt and Qatar. Those contacts will continue over the next week to move the negotiation process forward.”
CIA Director William Burns visited Paris last week as part of a high-level effort to restart hostage negotiations that have stalled in recent weeks.
Inside Israel, hostage families are continuing to pressure Netanyahu’s politically embattled government to reach a diplomatic deal with Hamas and allow their loved ones home after nearly eight months in captivity. Around 120 hostages are believed to still be being held, including five Americans.
Hamas is calling on Israel to impose a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Last rounds of negotiations in Cairo ended in early May without any meaningful progress, but U.S. officials expressed optimism that differences between Israel and Hamas could be overcome. Burns heads the U.S. delegation in Egypt and remains in contact with David Barnea, director of Israel’s national intelligence agency, Mossad.
Regional sources said progress was made during Friday’s Paris talks between Messrs. Burns and Barnea and Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. Two U.S. officials suggested the Paris activities could help all parties take a step toward resuming hostage negotiations.
President Joe Biden, in his commencement speech at West Point on Saturday, said the U.S. is engaging in “urgent diplomacy to ensure our security.” [an] An immediate ceasefire to bring the hostages home.”
The White House said Friday that President Biden had discussed “renewed efforts” with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to secure the release of hostages along with an “immediate and lasting ceasefire” in Gaza.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken of Israel War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz A State Department spokesman said the meeting also included discussions of “latest efforts to achieve a ceasefire as part of an agreement to release the hostages and prevent escalation of conflict across the region.”
The war in Gaza began following an Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that left around 1,200 people dead, about a quarter of them soldiers, and another 250 taken prisoner. At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Michal Ben-Gal, Christine Brown and Arden Farhi contributed reporting.
