TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reluctantly approved Mossad Chief David Barnea's Friday departure for Doha for yet another round of indirect talks with Hamas, as security officials fear Netanyahu is not committed to reaching a deal and will try to push the talks further down the road.
This week, Hamas delivered comments via Qatar on the Israeli proposal for a hostage release and cease-fire deal revealed by President Joe Biden at the end of May.
Israeli security sources described the comments to Al-Monitor as a breakthrough, compared with Hamas' earlier response on June 11.
Netanyahu reported his decision to dispatch Barnea to President Joe Biden in a 30-minute telephone conversation Thursday. Previous negotiating rounds had also started out with great hope, only to collapse under Netanyahu’s double dealing — advancing a hostage deal while putting up obstacles to it under pressure from his government's hard-liners, who oppose any concessions to Hamas.
