Conflicting Israeli reports about restart of captives talks

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli Media
25 May 2024 20:09

Some reports stressed that the CIA Director, Mossad chief, and Qatari PM have agreed to resume indirect negotiations with Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar, and "with active US involvement."

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The seven Israeli captives were killed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip as part of the genocidal war against the Palestinian people. (Al-Qassam Military Media)

Conflicting reports have been handled by Israeli media, whose source appears to all be journalist Barak Ravid., who himself, in a post on X, denied that any negotiations are set for later this week right after announcing their resumption.

Negotiations expected to renew?

CIA Director Bill Burns met with Mossad Chief David Barnea in Washington and upon the latter's return, Israeli i24 news and Barak Ravid both noted that, according to Israeli officials, "Israel", the US, and Qatar have agreed to resume indirect negotiations with Hamas on the release of Israeli settlers and soldiers held captive in the Gaza Strip, the liberation of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, and a potential truce in Gaza.

According to reports, the upcoming round of talks, which the US, "Israel", and Qatar are reportedly ready to hold is set to be mediated by Egypt and Qatar following the Paris Paper put forward by CIA Director Burns, Mossad Chief Barnea, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

On that note, Ravid stressed that the mediation will include the "active involvement of the US."

Ravid, shortly after, posted that the Biden administration was surprised by the Israeli announcement about the resumption of negotiations on a captives deal.

Allegedly, the Israeli occupation's war cabinet has expanded the mandate of the Israeli negotiating team. Initially, it was claimed, that Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposed this expansion, but he was swayed by widespread support for the move and the recent release of a video by the Palestinian Resistance movement al-Qassam Brigades.

Or no negotiations to expect?

However, in his latest post on X, Ravid contradicted his earlier statement, saying, "There is a significant attempt to renew the negotiations on the abductees deal," adding that "the meeting in Paris was a step in the right direction."

Moreover, Ravid added that "the negotiations have not been renewed and at this point they will not be renewed this week," defining negotiations as "negotiations teams from Israel, Qatar, Egypt, the USA and Hamas who sit in a certain place and try to reduce gaps."

'Israel' achieved none of its goals of Gaza invasion, NSC chief says

The head of the Israeli occupation's "National Security Council," Tzachi Hanegbi, said earlier on Wednesday that "Israel" did not achieve any of the goals of its war on Gaza.

"We did not achieve any of the strategic goals of the war, no conditions for a prisoner deal, we did not topple Hamas and we did not enable the residents of the [Gaza] envelope to return to their homes safely," Hanegbi said during a briefing to the Israeli Foreign Affairs and Security Committee.

"They say in the [Israeli forces] that this will take a lot of time, not one year, but years," Hanegbi added.

"The Cabinet did not set any clear goal for the north, no dates, no targets, no strategic goals," he added.

Top officials in the Biden administration are calling out "Israel's" tactics in Gaza "self-defeating" – a type of criticism that "Israel" has not seen since October 7, according to Politico.

The officials said that "Israel" has turned the world against it with its continuous bombing and blocking of humanitarian aid, which they claim has enabled the Palestinian Resistance to recruit more fighters.

An anonymous senior administration official told Politico, "We want to encourage a deeper focus on the connection between the ongoing military operations and, ultimately, the strategic endgame," adding, "We’re going to keep pressing on that point."

The official noted that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week to plan an "achievable and durable" success against Hamas.

Meanwhile, in a Tuesday interview for CNN, Netanyahu said, "We have to get rid of Hamas. Otherwise, there’s no future for Gaza."

A person familiar with US intelligence revealed that Biden officials are becoming increasingly concerned that Hamas has been able to recruit during wartime which has allowed them to withstand the seven months of war.

The idea of "total victory" is also increasingly becoming unlikely, as asserted last week by Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, and then later, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. C.Q. Brown called out "Israel" for failing to protect civilians in Gaza and prevent Hamas from coming back.

Brown told reporters, "Not only do you have to actually go in and clear out whatever adversary you are up against, you have to go in, hold the territory, and then you’ve got to stabilize it," and if that doesn’t happen, it "allows your adversary then to re-populate in areas if you’re not there, and so that does make it more challenging for them as far as being able to meet their objective of being able to militarily destroy and defeat Hamas."