Mossad chief David Barnea will resume talks on a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egyptian officials on March 17.
Israel Ready to Negotiate
The sources state that the negotiations, which are expected to take place in Doha, will centre on the unresolved issues between Israel and Hamas over the ceasefire, such as the number of Palestinian prisoners who might be freed in return for Israeli hostages and supplies of aid to the Gaza Strip.
Jerrymusa.com reports that on October 7, a surprise attack by militants from the radical Palestinian organisation Hamas, which is based in the Gaza Strip, killed many Israeli kibbutz residents who were living close to the Gaza border and abducted over 240 Israelis, including women, children, and the elderly. This incident sparked renewed tensions in the Middle East.
Israel initiated a complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, bombarded the enclave, as well as certain regions in Syria and Lebanon, and conducted a ground assault against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
There have also been reports of clashes in the West Bank. In late November 2023, Hamas announced that it had reached a humanitarian truce with Israel for four days in the Gaza Strip, which was mediated by Egypt and Qatar.
The parties repeated the ceasefire several times, but on December 1st, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) declared that Hamas had broken the truce in Gaza and had opened fire on Israeli territory.
This prompted the IDF to resume combat operations in the Gaza Strip. In the course of the week-long humanitarian pause, 110 people who had been kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, had been released.