TEL AVIV: Mossad agents negotiating the potential renewal of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas left Qatar on Saturday due to an impasse in the talks.
“Due to the impasse in negotiations and following instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mossad chief David Barnea ordered his team in Doha to return to Israel,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Saturday night.
“The Hamas terror group did not fulfill its obligations under the agreement, including releasing all the women and children in accordance with a list provided to Hamas and approved by it,” the statement added.
“[Barnea] thanks the head of the CIA, Egypt’s intelligence minister and the prime minister of Qatar for their partnership in the tremendous mediation efforts that led to the release of 84 women and children from Gaza, in addition to 24 foreign nationals,” it noted.
The IDF resumed combat operations in Gaza on Friday morning after Hamas broke a week-long ceasefire by firing rockets at the Jewish state.
Barnea has repeatedly flown to Doha to hold discussions aimed at securing the release of additional hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Amid renewed fighting, Israel’s government said it remains committed to seeing that all the hostages return home.
According to the latest numbers, 137 remain in captivity. Of those, 20 are women and 117 are men. They include 126 Israelis and 11 foreigners.
Israel has focused on the return first of women and children. The two hostages under the age of 18 are nine month-old Kfir Bibas and her four year-old brother, Ariel. Hamas purposefully separated families.
Hamas claims the two Bibas children and their mother are dead but has not provided evidence. Israeli media reports speculated that Hamas is trying to extract more concessions for the remaining and children, or because Hamas doesn’t want them publicly talking about their captors treated them.
The only minors freed in Thursday’s releases were 17 year-old Aisha Ziyadne and her 18 year-old brother Bilal, from the Bedouin community of Rahat. Their father and a 25 year-old brother are still in captivity.
Ten other hostages are 75 or older.
Eleven of the remaining captives are foreign nationals.
During a seven-day truce, 105 hostages were released, including 81 Israelis and 24 foreign nationals. In exchange, Israel freed 210 Palestinian prisoners —all of whom were women or minors—and allowed deliveries of food, water, medicine and fuel into Gaza.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. Some people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains. (ANI/TPS)