Release of 50 hostages kidnapped from Israel likely to happen soon

Tel Aviv, Dec 31

With a crucial meeting of the Israeli war cabinet to be held on the New Year's eve, the possibilities of release of around 50 hostages from Israel who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 is likely to happen soon.

The war cabinet, according to sources in Israel defence ministry, is meeting on Sunday, to take forward further discussions with Qatar and Egyptian mediators regarding the release of hostages.

Israel spy agency Mossad's chief David Burnea has been given the green signal by the government to move ahead regarding discussions on release of hostages.

A couple of weeks ago Burnea had met CIA chief William Burns and Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani at Warsaw in Poland and highly-ranked Egyptian officials regarding the release of hostages.

However, there were reports of Hamas backing out of the talks and insisting on a total end of the war. This was dismissed by the Israeli side with both Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Galant sticking on to their earlier positions of eradicating Hamas.

Sources in the Israel defence ministry told IANS that Hamas is back to the negotiating table as the militant outfit saw scores of its operatives deaths in war with the country.