Peace talks constructive, says Israel PMO

Tel Aviv, Jan 29 (IANS) The Israel Prime Minister’s Office said that the peace talks held for a ceasefire and the release of all its hostages from Hamas custody were constructive.

The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement on Sunday night confirmed that a four way meeting involving US,Israel, Qatar and Egypt had taken place in Europe and was quite constructive.

The PMO said that there were still gaps regarding the deal to be adopted for a ceasefire and release of hostages and that this would be taken forward again this week itself.

Director of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns; David Barnea, the head of the Mossad intelligence agency; Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and the Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel participated in the discussions widely believed to have been held in Paris.

Ronen Bar, the head of the Israeli Shin Ben security service, as well as IDF hostage envoy Nitzan Alon were also at the four nation summit.

Hamas, according to information available, has demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of all IDF forces as a condition for the release of hostages and Israel has rejected these demands outright.

Israel Defense ministry sources told IANS that the peace agreement would be carried out in two phases.

In the first phase there would be a pause to the war wherein all the elderly, women and children and those under medication would be let off by Hamas in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails. There will be a pause to the war and Israeli civilian men and soldiers, who are in custody, would be let off for a further exchange of a large number of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

However Hamas, according to Arab and Hebrew media, wanted a permanent stoppage of the war and that this was rejected in toto by the Israel side.

There was a one week ceasefire between the two sides from November 24 to December 1 during which 105 hostages were released by Hamas in exchange for 324 Palestinian prisoners.

The war erupted on October 7 when Hamas-led terrorists from the Gaza Strip carried out a massive attack on Israel that killed some 1,200 people in the south of the country, most of them civilians.

The Hamas terrorists massacred people, gang-raped women and tortured and mutilated their victims in border communities and at the Rim music festival.

Hamas and other militant groups also abducted 253 people of all ages, mostly civilians, as hostages in Gaza.

Israel responded with a military campaign immediately and a ground offensive from October 27 to destroy Hamas, remove it from power in Gaza and release the hostages.

It is to be noted that according to official records 132 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 are still being held in Gaza. However Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Military Intelligence have confirmed that 28 of the hostages were dead. Three of the hostages were killed in an accidental firing by the IDF.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza controlled by Hamas has stated that more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel commenced its counter attack. The deceased include a large number of women and children and there has been genocide calls against Israel.

More than 200 soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were also killed in the ongoing war as per the statements from IDF.