Israel’s Mossad chief expected to meet Qatari PM to resume negotiations – axios

Director of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad David Barnea is expected to meet Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Europe this weekend, news platform Axios on Friday reported.

The officials would discuss resuming negotiations for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages, Axios said.

According to Axois, Israel’s return to the table suggests it is ready to try to explore a new hostage deal.

The previous deal was derailed two weeks ago after Hamas refused to release the remaining women it is holding hostage.

Hamas blamed Israel for the collapse and said the women Israel proposed to be released were IDF soldiers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped Mossad chief Barnea from traveling to Qatar for that reason earlier this week.

However, Axios reports that Netanyahu has since changed his mind and has agreed to dispatch.

On Friday Israel said its troops had killed three Gaza hostages after mistaking them for a threat, with the armed forces expressing “deep remorse” over a “tragic incident” that sparked protests in Tel Aviv.

The Israeli military said Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz and Samer El-Talalqa were shot during operations in a neighborhood of Gaza City.

The trio were among those kidnapped during Hamas’s raids into Israel on October 7.

Netanyahu described the death of the three hostages as an “unbearable tragedy”, while the White House called the incident a “tragic mistake”.

As news of the incident spread, hundreds of people gathered at Israel’s ministry of defence in Tel Aviv in protest.

The demonstrators waved Israeli flags and brandished placards with the faces of some of the 129 people still held in Gaza.

“Every day, a hostage dies,” read one of the placards.