
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) speaks to Mossad chief David Barnea at Mossad headquarters during a New Year toast on September 14, 2023. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL | Published January 12, 2025
Delegation to Doha will include heads of Mossad and Shin Bet and hostage point man; Hamas sources claim ceasefire accord is ‘completed’ and awaiting Netanyahu’s final approval
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Saturday evening that he had decided to send a high-level delegation to Qatar to join efforts to seal a hostage-ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.
The team departing Saturday night includes Mossad chief David Barnea, Shin Bet director Ron Bar, IDF hostage point man Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, and Netanyahu’s political adviser Ophir Falk.
The decision was made after Netanyahu held a situation assessment on the ongoing hostage talks. He was joined at the meeting by Defense Minister Israel Katz, Israel’s security chiefs, and officials from the Biden administration and incoming Trump administration.
Netanyahu met with Trump’s incoming US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Jerusalem earlier in the day. Witkoff met in Doha on Friday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who briefed him on the ongoing negotiations, before he traveled to Israel to meet with Netanyahu. Witkoff was set to return to Qatar to participate in the negotiations, a source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel, along with the senior Israeli delegation.
According to Hebrew media reports, Witkoff emphasized to Netanyahu during their meeting Saturday that Trump wants a hostage deal by his inauguration on January 20. Channel 12 news said that Trump’s envoy stressed that both sides must show flexibility to get an agreement across the finish line.
According to a report in Israel Hayom, at the end of his meeting with Netanyahu, the two held a conference call with current White House Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, who is leading the US delegation in Qatar.
Hamas sources claimed Saturday that a deal had been reached and was awaiting Netanyahu’s final approval.
Channel 13 news quoted two sources involved in the negotiations as saying that Netanyahu decided to send Israel’s most senior negotiators to the talks amid “general cautious progress” in the talks with mediators in Qatar.
A senior Israeli official told the network that Hamas has still not provided a list of living hostages to Israel.
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SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
RELATED: Netanyahu sends Mossad chief to Gaza ceasefire talks in Doha

David Barnea (left) will lead an Israeli delegration at ceasefire talks in QatarImage: Koby Gideon/GPO/dpa/picture alliance
DW | Published January 12, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the incoming US Middle East envoy. Afterward, the prime minister’s office announced that he sent Mossad chief David Barnea to ceasefire talks in Qatar.
Israel will send a delegation led by the head of its spy agency, Mossad, to ceasefire negotiations in Qatar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement late on Saturday.
It was not immediately clear when Mossad chief David Barnea would travel to Qatar. Also being sent to Qatar are the head of Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency and military and political advisers.
One brief ceasefire has been achieved during 15 months of fighting.
Talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have so far failed to achieve another ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office also said he met on Saturday with Steve Witkoff, the incoming US Middle East envoy appointed by President-elect Donald Trump.
Earlier this week, Witkoff was in Doha, where he met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week that a deal is “very close” and he hoped to complete it before handing over diplomacy to the incoming Trump administration.
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SOURCE: www.dw.com
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