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CIA, Mossad chiefs meet in Qatar as Israel-Hamas truce is extended | Israel-Palestine conflict News<\/p>\n
Talks between US and Israeli spy agencies in Qatar, which is key mediator, include issue of captives held in Gaza.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The heads of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Israel\u2019s Mossad have met in Qatar to discuss the extension of a truce between Israel and Hamas as well as the captives being held by the Palestinian group in Gaza.<\/p>\n CIA Director William Burns and David Barnea, head of the Mossad intelligence service, held talks with Qatar\u2019s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, on Tuesday, a day after Doha announced a two-day extension of an original four-day humanitarian pause in Gaza that had been due to expire.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have to read a little bit between the lines here: [The intelligence chiefs were] important in the last meeting, which was on November 9. We believe that was one of the stepping stones getting us to the initial four-day deal,\u201d Al Jazeera\u2019s diplomatic editor James Bays said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that we\u2019ve got intelligence chiefs sitting here with the Qatari prime minister, who is also the foreign minister, is interesting because they\u2019ve got the intelligence picture. But also I think it\u2019s interesting partly because of who the US has got leading this effort,\u201d he said, adding that Burns is \u201cmore experienced a negotiator than Antony Blinken\u201d, the United States secretary of state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating the original truce. But they have continued to swap captives for prisoners. Hamas has released captives in its custody, with another 12 freed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Our teams have successfully facilitated the release and transfer of 12 hostages held in Gaza. <\/p>\n We have been able to carry out this operation thanks to our neutral intermediary role.<\/p>\n\n