Statement: Israel remains in contact with mediators to reach a possible agreement (Representative)
Jerusalem:
Israel said on Saturday its spy chief had met with U.S. counterparts as part of efforts to secure the release of hostages still held in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a representative statement: “Mossad chief David Bania met with CIA director Bill Burns yesterday (Friday) as part of a push for another as part of ongoing efforts to secure a hostage release agreement.” Mossad.
The statement comes as mediators scramble to agree a new truce in Gaza’s five-month war ahead of Ramadan. Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting, which may begin as early as a Sunday, depending on the lunar calendar.
Israel did not send a delegation to the latest round of truce talks in Cairo, and Hamas left on Thursday for consultations with the movement’s leaders in Qatar after expressing dismay at Israel’s stance.
The Israeli statement did not specify where Bania and Burns met on Friday.
“At this stage, Hamas is consolidating its position as if it were uninterested in reaching an agreement and working to incite the region during Ramadan at the expense of the Palestinian residents of Gaza,” the report said.
US President Joe Biden warned this week that without a truce before Ramadan, “Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous”.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem has been a flashpoint for violence during Ramadan in past years, and a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing on Friday called on “our people” to mobilize and “crawl” towards the site. Place.
Netanyahu’s government faces intense domestic political pressure to bring the hostages home.
Hamas captured about 250 people in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war in Gaza, some of whom were released during a week-long truce in November.
Israel believes that 99 hostages in the Gaza Strip are still alive, and 31 of them have died.
“It should be noted that contact and cooperation with the mediators have continued with a view to reducing differences and advancing an agreement,” Israel’s statement on Saturday said.
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