The CIA and Mossad chiefs met with the Qatari prime minister in Doha
Six Palestinians were killed Thursday during an Israeli raid on Jenin
There was need for a meaningful continuous humanitarian aid to Gaza including fuel.
DOHA + GAZA + TEL AVIV ( Web News )
The CIA and Mossad chiefs met with the Qatari prime minister in Doha on Thursday to discuss the parameters of a deal for hostage releases and a pause in Hamas-Israel fighting in the Gaza Strip, a source briefed on the meeting told Reuters.
The outcome of the talks was unclear.
Qatar, where several Hamas political leaders are based, has been leading efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israeli officials for the release of hostages taken by Hamas militants when they rampaged into Israel on October 7, killing 1,400 people.
Israel then launched an unrelenting bombardment of Hamas-ruled Gaza and late last month launched an armored invasion of the enclave, where over 10,000 people have now been killed, 40 percent of them children, according to Palestinian officials.
David Barnea, head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, CIA Director William Burns and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani held the meeting after Qatari mediators met officials from the Hamas political office on Wednesday night and discussed potential parameters of a deal.
The situation in Gaza, the West Bank “is boiling.” UNRWA
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said on Thursday that he was concerned about the spillover risk of the situation in Gaza, adding that the West Bank “is boiling.”
Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), also said there was need for a meaningful continuous humanitarian aid to Gaza including fuel.
He said aid coming in through Rafah was inadequate, adding that all crossings into Gaza should be opened.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and its troops regularly launch raids across the Palestinian territory.
Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in the Gaza Strip on October 7, Israeli forces have arrested more than 2,000 people across the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group.
The Israeli military has put the figure at more than 1,000 and said most are affiliated with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip.
Six Palestinians were killed Thursday during an Israeli raid on Jenin
Six Palestinians were killed Thursday during an Israeli raid on Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, updating an earlier toll.
A statement from the ministry said the current death toll in Jenin stood at six, up from five announced in a previous statement.
The Israeli army said its forces were operating in Jenin but did not provide further details.
Since the beginning of the war triggered by attacks on October 7 by Gaza-based Hamas militants, which Israeli officials say killed more than 1,400 people, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israeli forces have arrested more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank in that time, the army said, most of them affiliated with Hamas. Clashes have often erupted during such operations.
Israeli troops had secured a Hamas military stronghold called Compound 17 in Jabalya
Israeli troops had secured a Hamas military stronghold called Compound 17 in Jabalya in northern Gaza after 10 hours of combat with Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants above and below the ground, the Israeli military said on Wednesday.
It said troops killed dozens of militants, seized weapons, exposed tunnel shafts and discovered a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in a residential building in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.
Israeli military footage showed soldiers walking through rubble into a building where one wall had been blasted away, finding weapons-manufacturing equipment, instruction manuals and a tunnel shaft with a cooling system. Nearby was a little girl’s bedroom with pink walls, pink wardrobes and three little beds.
The armed wing of Hamas said it had killed a greater number of Israeli soldiers than the military has announced, and destroyed dozens of tanks, bulldozers, and other vehicles. It released footage of fighters firing anti-tank rockets and scoring direct hits to vehicles.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Thursday it has secured a key stronghold of Palestinian militant group Hamas after a 10-hour battle in northern Gaza.
Fighters of the Nahal Brigade captured “Outpost 17,” a military stronghold of Hamas in western Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said in a statement.
The IDF said it completed the takeover of the outpost after 10 hours of fighting, during which they eliminated Hamas and Islamic Jihad combatants, captured many weapons, and uncovered tunnel shafts – including a shaft adjacent to a kindergarten and leading to an extensive underground route.
“During the takeover of the outpost, Nahal soldiers located and collected significant Hamas battle schemes and operational plans,” the IDF added.
Hamas did not immediately comment on the Israeli takeover of the outpost.
Meanwhile, 65 people were killed and more than 100 were injured in Israeli airstrikes on several buildings in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Thursday.
Gaza released a video showing an elderly woman and a young boy
The armed wing of the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad in Gaza released a video on Thursday showing an elderly woman and a young boy who were among around 240 hostages seized by militant gunmen who attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
It said it was prepared to release the two for humanitarian and medical reasons once appropriate conditions were met. It did not give further details.
A video which Palestinian militants said shows two hostages in Gaza was slammed Thursday as “psychological terrorism” by Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht.
Israel described videos released by Palestinian militants on Thursday of two hostages held in Gaza as an important sign of life, but declined to be drawn on whether they would be released, saying that would be to play into the captors’ “psychological warfare.”
“This is a sign of life, and it is important,” chief Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said when asked about the elderly woman and the boy held by Islamic Jihad.