CIA director to visit Qatar for Gaza cease-fire talks: Report

JERUSALEM

US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Bill Burns is set to travel to the Qatari capital Doha on Wednesday to discuss the latest developments in cease-fire and prisoner exchange negotiations between the Palestinian group Hamas and Israel.

Burns is expected to meet with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the US-based news site Axios reported, citing a source familiar with the trip.

The discussions will focus on indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas facilitated by Qatar.

US President Joe Biden’s Middle East adviser Brett McGurk is already in Doha, engaging in talks with Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials, according to a US official speaking to the media outlet.

The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN) reported Monday that an Israeli delegation with “limited authority” traveled to Doha for negotiations on a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner exchange.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that progress has been made toward a deal with Hamas.

Hamas, in a written statement on the same day, described the ongoing discussions in Qatar as “serious and positive.”

The group added that an agreement could be finalized if Israel stops introducing new conditions.

Israel, which according to prisoners’ groups has more than 10,000 Palestinians in its prisons, estimates that there are around 100 Israeli captives in Gaza.

Hamas has said that 33 captives have been killed in indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.

Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt and Qatar to reach a cease-fire have so far failed due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to halt the war on Gaza.

Israel has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,000 people, most of them women and children, since an attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.