Negotiations between Israel and Hamas It is expected to resume next week to reach an agreement to free Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip, two sources with knowledge told CBS News on Saturday. Negotiators from Qatar, Egypt and the United States will be part of the talks.
“There is progress,” a senior Biden administration official told CBS News. “Contacts are ongoing and we are working closely with the Egyptian and Qatari mediators. These contacts will continue over the next week as we seek to advance the negotiation process.”
CIA Director William Burns traveled to Paris last week as part of a high-level effort to revive hostage talks, which had broken down in recent weeks.
Inside Israel, families of the hostages continue to press Netanyahu's government, in political crisis, to reach a diplomatic deal with Hamas to bring their loved ones home after nearly eight months in captivity. About 120 hostages, including five US citizens, are believed to be still being held.
Hamas has pressed Israel for a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.
A previous round of negotiations in Cairo ended in early May without significant progress, although US officials expressed optimism that differences between Israel and Hamas could be overcome. Burns headed the US delegation to Egypt and remains in contact with David Barnea, head of Mossad, Israel's national intelligence agency.
A source in the region indicated that progress had been made at Friday's Paris meeting with Burns, Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. Two US officials indicated that their work in Paris will help bring all sides closer to restarting negotiations on the hostages.
During a commencement address at West Point on Saturday, President Joe Biden said the United States is committed to “urgent diplomacy to secure [an] an immediate ceasefire that brings the hostages home.”
On Friday, the White House announced that Biden discussed with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi “new initiatives” to secure the release of the hostages along with an “immediate and sustained ceasefire” in Gaza.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Israelis War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz Friday. The State Department spokesman said it included a discussion of the “latest efforts to achieve a ceasefire as part of an agreement to release hostages and prevent the conflict from spreading across the region.”
The war in Gaza followed an October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people, a quarter of them soldiers, and took 250 prisoners. At least 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Michal Ben-Gal, Kristin Brown and Arden Farhi contributed to this report.
Margaret Brennan
