The head of the Mossad arrived in Paris to unblock the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas

An Israeli delegation, led by the head of the Mossad, the foreign secret service, went to Paris on Friday in the hope of “unblocking” the talks about a new truce with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media.

The head of the Mossad, David Barnea, and the Shin Bet (internal intelligence service), Ronen Bar, would have flown to the French capital on Friday, according to the same sources.

Paris has become, together with Cairo and Abu Dhabi, the center of these pilgrimages to obtain a humanitarian ceasefire and the release of foreign and Israeli hostages, held by Hamas since the attack in Israel on 7 October.

In late January, the Mossad chief met in Paris with his American and Egyptian counterparts and the prime minister of Qatar to discuss a new ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

An initial one-week truce allowed, at the end of November, the release of over a hundred hostages held by Hamas and 240 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. A Hamas source said that the plan discussed in Paris at the end of January also included this a six-week pause in fighting and the release of 200-300 Palestinian prisoners, in exchange for 35-40 hostages held by Hamas.

Since then, talks have also taken place in Egypt. According to the Palestinian Islamic Movement, Hamas leader Ismaïl Haniyeh made a “multi-day” visit to Cairo that ended Thursday afternoon. According to Hamas, the discussions focused on the situation in Gaza, the “end of Israeli aggression”, the “return of displaced people to their homes” and the “exchange of prisoners”.

Hamas’s request

The Palestinian movementspent weeks calling for a “comprehensive ceasefire” and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

These are requests considered “delusional” by the Israeli prime ministerBenjamin Netanyahu, whose government is open to a pause in the fighting but says he wants to continue the military operation to “annihilate” Hamas.

Netanyahu also opposes the release of prisoners who participated in anti-Israeli attacks, requested by Hamas. The extremist group is now calling for the release of Marwan Barghoutti, who they call the Palestinian Mandela and who has been held in Israeli prisons for twenty years.

Relatives of the hostages fear that the far-right Israeli government will launch its offensive on Rafah, in the south of the Strip, turning the hostages into “collateral damage”.

The war was sparked on October 7 by an unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas commandos infiltrating from Gaza, which left more than 1,160 people dead, mostly civilians.

In retaliation, Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, who took power in Gaza in 2007, launched an air, land and sea offensive that left more than 29,000 dead in Palestinian territory, the vast majority civilians, according to the Ministry of Health, and more than 60,000 injured. At least 1,700,000 Gazans have their homes completely destroyed and have nowhere to live. The Strip is inside total famine, without medicines or functioning hospitals. Humanitarian aid arrives in dribs and drabs.