 "Israel says Mossad, CIA chiefs met to discuss hostage release deal")
Israel on Saturday revealed that Mossad’s chief met with his US counterpart on Friday to discuss the safe release of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
The news of the meeting was broken by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office after it released a statement on behalf of the Mossad.
“The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, met yesterday (Friday) with the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, as part of the ceaseless efforts to advance another hostage release deal,” the statement read.
The meeting between the two intelligence chiefs comes after ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas in Egypt failed to produce any positive outcome.
Israel did not send a delegation to the latest round of truce talks in Cairo, and Hamas left on Thursday after expressing frustration with Israel’s positions, heading to Qatar for consultation with the movement’s leadership.
The PMO statement, however, did not mention where the meeting between Barnea and Burns took place.
“At this stage, Hamas is entrenching its positions like someone who is not interested in a deal and is striving to inflame the region during Ramadan at the expense of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip,” it said.
US President Joe Biden warned this week that, without a truce before Ramadan, “Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”
Hamas took about 250 people captive in the October 7 attack that triggered the war in Gaza, some of whom were released during a week-long truce in November.
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More ShortsIsrael believes 99 hostages remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died.
“It should be noted that contacts and cooperation with the mediators are continuing all the time in an attempt to bring a reduction of the differences and advance agreements,” Saturday’s Israeli statement said.
With inputs from AFP
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