Hamas made a renewed offer to the Israeli government for a possible ceasefire in Gaza last Friday. The offer included what a member of Israel’s negotiating team called a “very significant breakthrough”.
It led Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to send the head of the Mossad domestic intelligence agency, David Barnea, to Qatar. There he met Qatar’s prime minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who has been an intermediary in the long drawn-out talks.
These developments raised hopes for progress in the negotiations. But within 48 hours reality intervened. It emerged that Barnea was actually in Qatar to deliver fresh demands on Hamas before progress could be made, leading to accusations that the Israeli government was trying to sabotage the the proposal.
