Israel-Qatar meet, raising prospects of Gaza hostage talks

CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM: Israel appeared to confirm that new negotiations were underway to recover hostages held by Hamas, after a source said Israel’s intelligence chief met the prime minister of Qatar, a country mediating in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a press conference on Saturday the war in Gaza was existential and must be fought until victory. He said Gaza would be demilitarised and under Israeli security control.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza helped clinch a partial hostage-release deal in November, Netanyahu said, vowing to maintain intense military pressure on Hamas. He has vowed to destroy the militant Palestinian group, which runs the densely populated strip.

“The instruction I am giving the negotiating team is predicated on this pressure, without which we have nothing,” he said.

Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured 240 hostages in a surprise raid into Israel on Oct. 7. Israel’s counteroffensive has killed close to 19,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities, and left thousands buried in the rubble.

Aid organisations say the destruction of Gaza and the displacement of most of its 2.3 million people – many living in tents and makeshift shelters without food or clean water – is a humanitarian crisis.

The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, David Barnea, met Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani late on Friday, according to a source with knowledge of the matter, as attention turned to a possible Gaza truce and a prisoner and hostage deal.

The meeting in Europe was apparently the first between senior officials from Israel and Qatar, which has been acting as a mediator, since the collapse of a seven-day ceasefire in late November.