Israel says CIA and Mossad chiefs met to ‘narrow gaps’ in Gaza deal

Efforts to secure a deal on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza are ongoing, Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad said, despite dimming hopes for a truce during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Mossad chief David Barnea on Friday met his American counterpart, CIA Director William Burns, to promote a deal that would see hostages released, Mossad said in a statement. US President Joe Biden said on Saturday that Burns remained in the region.

“Contacts and cooperation with the mediators continue all the time in an effort to narrow the gaps and reach agreements,” Mossad said in the statement, which was distributed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

Israel and Hamas, the militant Islamist group that rules the Palestinian enclave and has been locked in a war with Israeli forces since its deadly October 7 rampage in southern Israel, have traded blame over the apparent deadlock in talks in the run-up to Ramadan, which begins on or around March 10.

Israel did not send a delegation to the latest round of truce talks in Cairo, and Hamas left on Thursday after expressing frustration with Israel’s positions, heading to Qatar for consultations with the movement’s leadership.

Egypt, the US and Qatar have been mediating truce negotiations since January. The last deal struck was a week-long pause in fighting in November, during which Hamas released more than 100 hostages and Israel freed about three times as many Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas blames Israel for the impasse in negotiations for a longer ceasefire and the release of 134 hostages believed still held in Gaza – saying it refuses to give guarantees to end the war or pull its forces from the enclave.