Hopes were raised on Wednesday that Israel and Hamas are moving towards a new ceasefire and an agreement for the release of hostages in the Gaza war, following secret talks and when the head of the Palestinian Hamas group visited Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told relatives of some of the remaining 129 prisoners held in Gaza since the October 7 attacks late Tuesday that his spy chief was busy trying to “free our hostages.”
“I have just sent the head of Mossad to Europe twice to promote a process to free our hostages,” the prime minister told them. “I will make every effort on this subject, and it is our duty to bring them all back.”
Mossad director David Barnea held a “positive meeting” in Warsaw this week with CIA chief Bill Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a source familiar with the talks told AFP, asking not to be named to be mentioned.
Talks were underway “with the aim of reaching an agreement on the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire and the possible release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons,” the source said.
Qatar-based Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh traveled on Wednesday to Egypt, traditionally a key mediator between Israel and the Palestinians, for talks with intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
A source close to Hamas, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the talks would focus on stopping the war and “preparing an agreement for the release of prisoners (and) the end of the siege of the Gaza Strip “.
President Isaac Herzog also said Israel “is ready for a new humanitarian pause and additional humanitarian assistance to enable the release of hostages.”
Meanwhile, another Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad, has released video footage it says shows two hostages, increasing pressure on Israel.
The bloodiest Gaza war ever began when Hamas attacked on October 7, killing about 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, and kidnapping about 250, according to an AFP count based on Israeli figures.
Israel launched a military campaign that has killed 19,667 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, while also cutting off most water, food and power supplies, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry.
Qatar helped broker an initial weeklong ceasefire last month, freeing 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The source close to Hamas said the talks in Egypt would focus on proposals including a one-week ceasefire that would see the release of 40 Israeli hostages, including women, children and male non-combatants.
Haniyeh met with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian before leaving Qatar, but no details of their meeting were released.
UN vote expected
Fighting continued unabated in Gaza on Wednesday, where the Israeli army reported close-quarters fighting and more than 300 attacks in the past day, while the death toll among its own forces in Gaza rose to 134.
It said that “ground, air and naval operations were conducted against dozens of terrorists and terrorist infrastructure,” including missile launch sites and military command and control centers in Khan Yunis.
Hamas sources said at least 11 people were killed in Israeli attacks overnight.
In Khan Yunis, residents searched by hand through the rubble of a building that had been completely flattened by bombing.
The house was “full of people, why did they bomb it? What is the reason?” said a distraught young resident, Amr Sheikh-Deeb.
“We managed to remove some bodies, but where are the rest? What have these people done?'
Three bodies lay on the floor of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where wounded people, including children, were being treated.
One man, Abed Abu Aisha, entered with his crying child, both covered in blood and dust.
“A rocket hit our house without any prior notice,” he said.
“We recovered a few from the rubble, but there are still more people buried. I don't know the exact number of victims, but an entire family was injured.”
The UN Security Council would vote later Wednesday on a resolution calling for a pause in the conflict, diplomatic sources told AFP, after two previous votes were postponed as members argued over the wording.
The latest version of the text calls for the “suspension” of hostilities, the sources said.
The US vetoed an earlier ceasefire resolution, drawing condemnation from aid groups pushing for more action to help civilians trapped in the conflict.
'On the edge'
The UN estimates that 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.4 million residents have been forced to flee their homes. Many are sheltering in tents amid major shortages and the biting winter cold.
“Amid displacement on an unimaginable scale and active hostilities, the humanitarian response system is on the brink,” said Tor Wennesland, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.
Israel, which declared an all-out siege of Gaza at the start of the war, has since allowed aid trucks through the Rafah crossing with Egypt and, as of this week, its own Kerem Shalom crossing.
The UN World Food Program said on Wednesday it had delivered food through the border crossing in a first direct aid convoy from Jordan.
An Israeli military agency, COGAT, said it had also started building a pipeline from Egypt to supply drinking water from a mobile desalination plant in a project led by the United Arab Emirates.
But aid groups have warned that humanitarian supplies are falling far short of urgent needs, and the UN children's agency said “child deaths from diseases could exceed those killed in bombings”.
The war in Gaza has stoked fears of regional escalation and Israel has exchanged deadly cross-border fire with the Iran-backed Hezbollah operative in Lebanon, where Israel said its planes hit more targets on Wednesday.
Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, meanwhile, have repeatedly fired missiles and drones at ships transiting the Red Sea that they say are linked to Israel in a show of support for the Palestinians.
The United States this week began setting up a multinational naval task force to protect the waterway leading to the Suez Canal, through which more than 10 percent of global trade passes.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)