JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a delegation charged with negotiating a hostage deal with Hamas to be dispatched on Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Sunday.
The statement said Netanyahu held a meeting on Sunday with the delegation and senior members of Israel’s defence establishment.
The statement did not specify the delegation’s destination. Until now a ceasefire effort led by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States has failed to produce any deal, with both sides in the more than nine-month-old Gaza conflict blaming each other for the impasse.
(Reporting by Emily Rose; Editing by Frances Kerry; Editing by Susan Fenton and Frances Kerry)
