Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is heading to Doha, Qatar, in a last-ditch effort to save talks on a potential hostage deal between Israel and Hamas after the terror group balked at Israel continuing the war against it.
The Times of Israel reported:
CIA chief Bill Burns is traveling to Doha for an emergency meeting with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani regarding the ongoing negotiations for a hostage release and temporary truce deal, an official briefed on the talks says.
“Burns is on his way to Doha for an emergency meeting with the Qatari prime minister aimed at exerting maximum pressure on Israel and Hamas to continue negotiating,” the source adds.
Hamas has insisted from the beginning that it wanted a permanent ceasefire as a condition of further hostage deals. Israel has refused, saying that it remains committed to destroying Hamas’s military and governing powers in Gaza.
The U.S. reportedly told Hamas, through mediators in Cairo, Egypt, last week, that it could ensure Israel would not return to war after a temporary pause for the release of hostages and Palestinian terrorists, but Israel disputed that.
Hamas seemed to signal a return to hostilities on Sunday when it fired a barrage of rockets at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, the major conduit through which humanitarian aid trucks pass from Israel to the Gaza Strip.
