The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation quoted a family member of the Israeli prisoners in Gaza as saying that they found a listening ear during their meeting with the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
A member of the prisoners’ families added that the Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister expressed his willingness to make efforts to reach a deal.
A member of the prisoners’ families also said that former Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz organized the meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister and was present at it, adding that Benny Gantz held a bilateral meeting with the Qatari Prime Minister after meeting with the families of the Israeli prisoners.
A member of the prisoners’ families confirmed that the Qatari Prime Minister said that an exchange agreement must be reached and the humanitarian crisis resolved, and he also stressed working hard to achieve this agreement.
For its part, Israeli Channel 12 reported, quoting sources who attended the meeting, that the meeting took place in Paris.
This comes amid the faltering negotiations mediated by Qatar and Egypt with the participation of the United States of America, while the latter is working on a new proposal, although an Israeli official said that Washington fears failure if it presents its new proposal in the current atmosphere.
For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) confirmed that it would not set any new demands and rejected any new conditions in the negotiations with Israel, and renewed the movement’s continued positivity and flexibility to reach a ceasefire agreement and the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from the entire Gaza Strip.
Many Israeli prisoners held by Hamas were killed in air strikes by the occupation forces on the Strip.
According to Israeli estimates, Hamas still holds about 100 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, while the movement has not officially announced their number.
Hamas links the release of these prisoners to the cessation of the war and the occupation’s withdrawal from the Strip, in addition to a prisoner exchange deal that includes the release of Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons.
Since October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, with full American support, leaving about 136,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amidst massive destruction and deadly famine.
In contempt of the international community, Israel continues the war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate halt, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent genocide and improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.