Mossad chief returns to Israel after Rome talks on prisoner swap with Palestinian factions

Israel – The head of the Israeli foreign intelligence agency (Mossad), David Barnea, returned to Tel Aviv on Sunday, after participating in four-party talks in the Italian capital, Rome, regarding a proposed ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and a prisoner exchange with the Palestinian factions movement.

Tel Aviv is holding no less than 9,500 Palestinians in its prisons, and estimates that there are 115 Israeli prisoners in Gaza, while the factions movement announced the killing of more than 70 prisoners in random raids launched by Israel.

“The head of the Mossad returned from Rome after discussing with mediators the (Israeli) clarification document regarding the prisoner exchange deal,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Delegations from Egypt, Qatar, the United States and Israel participated in the Rome meeting.

With the mediation of Cairo and Doha and the participation of Washington, Tel Aviv and the factions movement have been conducting indirect, faltering negotiations for months to conclude an agreement.

Netanyahu’s office continued: “The meetings (on the proposed agreement) will be renewed in the coming days.”

At the end of last May, US President Joe Biden proposed an agreement that Israel had presented to him, which included a ceasefire, prisoner exchange, and reconstruction of Gaza, in addition to a prisoner exchange.

Palestinian factions say that Israel and its ally the United States do not want to end the war on Gaza now, and are trying to buy time through negotiations, hoping that Netanyahu will achieve gains in the fighting.

With American support, Israel has been waging a war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, which has resulted in more than 130,000 Palestinian deaths and injuries, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and deadly famine.

In contempt of the international community, Tel Aviv continues the war, ignoring the UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate halt to it, and the International Court of Justice’s orders to take measures to prevent acts of genocide and improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Anatolia