US, Israeli negotiators to discuss Gaza ceasefire deal in Doha

US and Israeli negotiators will meet in Doha in the coming days to try to restart discussions on a cease-fire and the release of captives in Gaza, authorities said.

Qatar and Egypt served as mediators between Israel and Hamas during months of talks that ended in August without an agreement to cease the conflict, which began when the Palestinian militant group launched strikes on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, David Barnea, the head of the Mossad intelligence organization, will go to Doha on Sunday, and CIA director William Burns will be there for the talks.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to the Middle East this week, attempting to restart discussions following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who Washington claims was the major impediment to an agreement.

Blinken said it had not yet been determined whether Hamas was prepared to engage in new negotiations, but urged the group to do so.

Meanwhile, a senior Hamas official said on Thursday that the group had told Egyptian officials it was ready to stop fighting in Gaza if Israel committed to a ceasefire deal.

The official said a Hamas delegation discussed “ideas and proposals” related to a Gaza truce with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Thursday.

At least 17 Palestinians, including children, were killed on Thursday in an Israeli strike on a school in Nuseirat camp in the central part of the Gaza Strip, where people displaced by the fighting were sheltering, Nuseirat’s Al-Awda hospital said.

The Israeli military said it had hit a Hamas command and control centre embedded in a compound formerly used as a school in Nuseirat.