Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said representatives from Mossad and the army would participate in the discussions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said a delegation had been approved to resume ceasefire negotiations in Qatar.
U.S., Qatari and Egyptian mediators have spent nearly a year trying to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas, but those efforts have faced repeated obstacles, with both parties accusing each other of having failed.
At one point last year, Qatar suspended its mediation efforts, frustrated by the lack of progress.
Mr. Netanyahu’s office said representatives from the Mossad intelligence agency and the military would participate in the talks, but gave no further details.
Hamas did not immediately comment on this new attempt to end nearly 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip.
This began after a Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which left around 1,200 dead and 250 hostages in Gaza.
Around a hundred hostages are still prisoners in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities estimate that at least a third are dead.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry says more than 45,500 Palestinians have been killed, but authorities do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their tally.
Raid in Syria
Furthermore, the Israeli army claimed responsibility for a night raid carried out in Syria last September, during which dozens of commandos allegedly destroyed a top-secret Iranian missile factory.
Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli army spokesman, said Iran, together with its Syrian allies and Hezbollah, planned to build hundreds of precision-guided missiles per year at the factory, which could be transferred to Lebanon.
He said the factory was located in western Syria, around the town of Masyaf, near the Lebanese border.
He added that Israel had been monitoring the underground facility for several years, but decided to strike at a time when Israel was at war with Hezbollah and the plant was becoming operational.
“This facility posed a clear threat to the State of Israel and that is why we needed to act,” he said.
According to Shoshani, more than 100 special forces soldiers took part in the September 8 raid, supported by dozens of planes.
Calling the operation one of the most complex carried out by Israel in years, he said soldiers arrived by helicopter and entered the facility, which he said was dug deep into the side of a mountain. .
ADVERTISEMENTAttacks from Yemen
While Israel and Hezbollah, supported by Iran, concluded a ceasefire at the end of November which has largely held, Israel continues to come under fire from the Houthi rebel group in Yemen.
In a statement released early Friday morning, the Israeli military said sirens were ringing across the country due to “projectile fire” from Yemen, but did not specify what it was or where the projectiles had landed. .
The Iran-backed Houthis are intensifying their missile attacks on Israel, driving hundreds of thousands of Israelis into shelters in the middle of the night, scaring away foreign airlines and fueling what could be the last major front of the war in the Middle East.
As most missiles are intercepted and firing generally targets only one missile at a time, the strikes have not caused significant material damage, although a few attacks have been fatal during the 15 months of war in Gaza, Houthis attacking in solidarity with Hamas.
ADVERTISEMENTShortly after the start of the war in Gaza, the Houthis also began targeting Red Sea ships that they believed had trade links with Israel. However, very few of the ships hit had ties to Israel, but the missile strikes reduced traffic on this vital maritime waterway.
Israel has repeatedly bombed ports, oil infrastructure and the airport in the capital Sanaa, held by the Houthis and located some 2,000 kilometers from Israel.
