A phone call and questions. Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday about ongoing negotiations to obtain a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held in the Palestinian territory, a senior US official said.
The day before, Saturday, the Israeli leader had instructed a delegation of senior officials to join the ongoing negotiations in Qatar. According to Netanyahu’s office, the latter held a meeting in Jerusalem in the presence of US President-elect Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, a representative of the outgoing US administration, the Israeli minister of Defense Israel Katz and Israeli security officials. “At the end of the meeting, the Prime Minister instructed the head of Mossad (foreign intelligence), the head of Shin Bet (domestic intelligence), reserve general Nitzan Alon and his foreign policy advisor Ophir Falk to visit in Doha to continue promoting an agreement for the release of our hostages”his office said.
“Hell”
A decision welcomed by the Families Forum, the main association of relatives of hostages, while rallies take place like every Saturday evening in the country’s major cities to demand their release. “We call on the delegation to seize this historic opportunity to obtain the release of all our loved ones”reacted the Forum in a press release. “May she do everything possible to come back with an agreement allowing the return of all the hostages, down to the last one.”
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas resumed last weekend in Qatar with a view to a ceasefire in Gaza, but Israel was not represented by senior officials. In the run-up to Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, outgoing US President Joe Biden announced Thursday that “real progress” in the negotiations. For his part, Donald Trump recently promised “hell” to the region if the hostages were not released before his return to power.
Source: www.liberation.fr
