Tel Aviv
CNN
—
Israel’s war cabinet agreed to send a negotiating team, led by Mossad Director David Barnea, to Paris on Friday to pursue talks over a potential ceasefire and hostage release deal, an Israeli official said.
The negotiating team is expected to be empowered to engage in substantive negotiations rather than simply listening to proposals as they did during meetings in Cairo last week, the official said.
The full Israeli cabinet is expected to vote on the matter overnight to give final approval for the trip.
CIA Director Bill Burns and his Egyptian and Qatari counterparts were expected to be in Paris on Friday for talks, two sources familiar with the plans told CNN on Wednesday. The Israeli government had yet to confirm its attendance.
The decision came during a war cabinet meeting Thursday night, at the end of a day that saw President Joe Biden’s Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk meeting with top Israeli officials, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Israeli official said that the Israeli government was waiting for confirmation that the medication had reached the hostages in Gaza before agreeing to return to the negotiating table.
That proof, combined with positive indications from talks in Cairo on Wednesday and prodding from US officials, ultimately triggered the Israeli agreement to send a negotiating team to Paris.
This comes after CNN reported that the Biden administration is racing against the clock to secure a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war before Ramadan next month, with senior US officials believing that the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza is the only plausible way to bring the first pause to the deadly conflict since a seven-day truce in late November.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
