Mossad Chief David Barnea will promote a new framework for a hostage deal when he heads to Doha on Sunday to join the first high-level negotiations held by CIA Director William Burns in almost two months.
Barnea has “been working under the radar” on a new deal “together with the Qataris, the Americans and the Egyptians,” a source told The Jerusalem Post.
“They feel that there is a real opportunity for a new start,” the source added but did not provide any details as to what the latest framework for an agreement would entail.
The Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday, “At the meeting, the parties will discuss the various options for starting the negotiations for the release of the hostages from Hamas captivity of Hamas, against the background of the latest developments.”
Shin Bet head Ronen Bar met Sunday in Egypt with the new intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, who will also participate in Sunday's Doha talks along with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Thani.
Qatar and Egypt have been the main mediators for the talks to secure the freedom of the 101 hostages, together with the United States.
The Prime Minister’s Office said that Netanyahu had instructed Barnea to head to Doha after the Egypt meeting.
Netanyahu “welcomed Egypt's readiness to advance a deal for the release of hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The renewal of talks - which were frozen after the Hamas killing of six hostages, including US-Israeli citizen Hersch Goldberg-Polin — takes place after the IDF assassinated Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar just over a week ago.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in the region this week in a push to jump-start the talks, visiting Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
Qatar confirms contact with Hamas after Sinwar's death
In a joint press conference with Blinken in Doha on Thursday, al-Thani confirmed that Doha had been in contact with Hamas in the aftermath of Sinwar’s killing.
“We're engaged with them,” al-Thani said.
“We had some meetings with them the last couple of days,” but he said Qatar was unable to determine their position on the talks. It sensed, however, that “it was the same position" the group held when the last round of negotiations was held.
“I think this will be their starting point until they come up with a further position,” he said.
Qatar is closely coordinated with Egypt with regard to a hostage deal, al-Thani said.”Today, there are ongoing discussions between Egypt and Hamas. We hope these discussions will yield something positive.”
Until the end of August, Qatar and Egypt, together with the US, had hoped to finalize the first phase of a three-part deal, first unveiled at the end of May. That first phase would have seen the return of up to 32 hostages, characterized as humanitarian cases, including women, the elderly, and ill captives.
The US has largely spoken of resuming hostage talks based on this paradigm. In the aftermath of Sinwar’s death, Israel has spoken of looking at other options, including one that would see all the captives returned at once or making individual deals directly with the Palestinians holding the captives.
Blinken was vague when it came to details about what negotiators would discuss in Doha.
“I’m not going to go into any details of what’s on the table or potentially on the table with regard to the hostage and ceasefire deal.
“We’re looking at different options. But as you heard the Prime minister say, we haven’t yet really determined whether Hamas is prepared to engage.
“The next step is getting the negotiators together, and I anticipate we’ll know … more in the coming days,” he said.
"The fundamental question is: Is Hamas serious?” Blinken said, stressing that Sinwar had been “the biggest obstacle to actually concluding an agreement.”
It’s important, he said, to finalize a hostage deal because that is the “quickest way to get hostages home.”
Barnea has spoken in the past of the possibility of a larger deal that would leverage pressure from Iran and Hezbollah on Hamas to make a deal, thereby effectively creating a ceasefire with Hezbollah and Hamas that would also see the return of the hostages.
Blinken clarified that, at present, the talks on Gaza hostages were separate from efforts to reach a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, which would be based on the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 that set the ceasefire terms that ended the Second Lebanon War.
“Separate from that is work that we’re doing also very intensely on Lebanon to reach a diplomatic resolution, to see the full implementation of 1701, to enable people to return to their homes. That’s separate, but it’s equally intense,” he said.
Right before leaving Israel, Blinken appeared to indicate that a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal could also be placed within a larger regional framework that included a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia.
He told reporters on the tarmac in Tel Aviv before he took off that the US was exploring a “new framework” for a deal.
“We talked about the plan that we’ve had on the table and the work that we’re doing on that plan, looking at new frameworks of foreign relations as a possibility,” Blinken said.
The US “can see a partnership for peaceful coexistence on the other hand. Saudi Arabia would be right at the heart of that, and that includes, potentially, normalization of relations with Israel. That remains an issue that’s real, that’s possible, and that we’re going to be talking about, as we have over these many months,” he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.