CIA Director William Burns will visit Qatar on Wednesday to meet with officials to review remaining obstacles between Hamas and Israel in securing a ceasefire and the release of prisoners after more than a year of stalemate.
Sources privy to the matter told Reuters that Burns will meet Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha.
The Gulf state has not publicly commented on the reports. The CIA also declined to provide Reuters with a comment on the matter.
Citing anonymous sources, the agency said a ceasefire agreement could be signed “in the coming days,” noting that progress had also been made in the Cairo talks.
The CIA chief’s visit came to light after AFP reported on Monday that an Israeli technical team had travelled to Doha to discuss the agreement following a trip by the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, David Barnea, to the country last week.
“These are working-level talks between the Israeli and Qatari teams,” the source told AFP.
The reports signalled a possible impetus in the talks after more than a year of stalemate with Israel, which insists on continuing its brutal war in the Gaza Strip and maintaining its military presence.
In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas said a deal was still possible if Israel stopped imposing new conditions.
Israeli attacks kill 38 more Gazans as death toll nears 45,100
Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip have killed at least 38 more Palestinians, bringing the total death toll since last year to 45,097, the enclave’s health ministry said on Wednesday.
Some 107,244 others were wounded in the ongoing attacks, the ministry statement added. It also said:
“Israeli troops killed 38 people and wounded 203 others in three massacres of families in the past 24 hours. Many people are still trapped under rubble and on roads as rescuers cannot reach them.”
Israel has continued its genocidal war in the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The second year of war in Gaza has drawn increasing international condemnation, with officials and organisations calling the attacks and the blocking of aid supplies a deliberate attempt to destroy the population.
Last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the ICC for its deadly war in Gaza.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of France Unbowed (LFI), wrote on X:
“The horror. The gruesome massacre in the tents of the Gaza refugee camp sums up the killings of this army of war criminals and their leaders. Let their supporters in the media and in politics assess their responsibility for encouraging this government’s sense of impunity.
Enough is enough! Enough is enough! Every effort must be made to stop this abomination. Break co-operation with the Netanyahu government and its economy, impose an arms embargo, recognise the state of Palestine. Macron is doing nothing. Not in our name!”
