TEL AVIV, July 31. /TASS/. Israel is eager to go back to the negotiating table to try to secure the return of all hostages held by radicals in the Gaza Strip, Dmitry Gendelman, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, told TASS.
"Israel is interested in continuing negotiations on the return of all 115 of our abducted citizens who are still held by terrorists from [the radical Palestinian movement] Hamas in Gaza," Gendelman said.
On July 28, CIA Director William Burns met with representatives of Israel, Egypt and Qatar in Rome in an attempt to clinch a deal on a ceasefire and release of hostages in Gaza. On the same day, Mossad Director David Barnea returned from Rome to Israel. The prime minister’s office said that the talks would be continued in the coming days. On May 31, US President Joe Biden announced his three-phase Israel-Palestine ceasefire plan, with each phase lasting six weeks. The plan envisages a complete ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian inmates from Israeli prisons.
Tensions flared up in the Middle East after Hamas militants attacked Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, killing residents of border settlements and taking over 240 hostages. In response, Israel launched a military operation in Gaza to eradicate Hamas’ military and political structure and to release all the hostages.
In late November 2023, a temporary one-week humanitarian truce was brokered by Egypt and Qatar. According to Israel, 110 hostages were released then. On December 1, the ceasefire was broken by radicals and combat operations resumed and are still going on.