Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a delegation of senior officials to Qatar for negotiations on a hostage release and Gaza ceasefire deal, his office said Saturday.

Netanyahu held a meeting in Jerusalem with US President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, a representative of current US President Joe Biden and senior Israeli officials, the prime minister’s office said in a statement. 

Following the meeting, Netanyahu instructed the heads of the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security agency as well as General Nitzan Alon and foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk “to depart for Doha in order to continue advancing a deal to release our hostages”, the statement said. 

The United States has for more than a year been mediating talks alongside Qatar and Egypt for an end to the war in Gaza alongside the release of hostages.

The announcement was welcomed by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group for those held in Gaza, which called it “a historic opportunity to secure the release of all our loved ones”.

“Leave no stone unturned and return with an agreement that ensures the return of all hostages, down to the last one,” it said in a statement.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas resumed last weekend in Qatar.

The discussions are currently focused on the immediate freeing of hostages taken by the Islamist group during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.  

Biden, who will leave office on January 20, said on Thursday there had been “real progress” in the talks.

Trump, who will replace Biden, promised “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released by his inauguration.

The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

During the attack, Palestinian militants took 251 people hostage, of whom 94 remain in the Gaza Strip, including 34 the Israeli military has declared dead.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 46,537 people, the majority civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory considered reliable by the United Nations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

1. On Saturday night, Hezbollah fired at least 10 missiles into northern towns and cities of Israel’s Jezreel Valley, the Times of Israel reported. This was the deepest incursion by Hezbollah rockets into Israeli territory since the conflict began in early October. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted most of the missiles, but one man in his 60s suffered minor injuries from shrapnel.
2. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the missile barrage and stated that it had aimed at the Ramat David Airbase. Located 50 km from the Lebanon border, the airbase is a key strategic site for the Israeli Air Force. 
3. In response, Israeli jets carried out a series of retaliatory strikes across southern Lebanon. The IDF reported that its airstrikes targeted at least 110 Hezbollah positions, including rocket launchers and operational facilities. The IDF claims it successfully disrupted Hezbollah’s preparations for further rocket launches.
4. The IDF stated that their Saturday afternoon air raids hit approximately 290 Hezbollah sites, including thousands of rocket launcher barrels, as part of their strategy to dismantle Hezbollah’s rocket-firing capabilities. These preemptive strikes were launched to degrade Hezbollah’s ability to launch large-scale attacks on Israeli territory.
5. The intensification of Israeli airstrikes follows Hezbollah’s earlier attack on Israeli military targets, including seven positions in northern Israel and the Golan Heights. Israel’s military reported that Hezbollah had fired about 90 rockets at Israeli forces during these engagements.
6. In addition to military targets, Israel conducted an airstrike on southern Beirut, killing senior Hezbollah commanders. According to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, the strike left 37 people dead. Among those killed were three children and seven women. Hezbollah confirmed that Ibrahim Aqil, the head of its elite Radwan Force, and other high-ranking commanders were among the dead. 
7. Following the loss of its commanders, Hezbollah vowed retaliation. Ahmed Mahmud Wahbi, another high-ranking Hezbollah commander, was also killed in the same Israeli strike. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah condemned the attack, calling it an act of war, and promised retribution against Israel.
8. The United Nations has expressed concern over the situation, calling for “maximum restraint” from all parties. Germany and other nations have urged an immediate de-escalation. International mediators, particularly from the United States, are working to prevent the Israel-Hezbollah conflict from spiralling into a regional war.
9. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of the country’s war objectives, including the return of northern Israeli residents, who have been forced to evacuate due to Hezbollah’s attacks. Netanyahu said the military’s focus was on dismantling Hezbollah’s ability to pose a threat to Israel’s northern borders, stating that the country’s actions speak for themselves.
10. Amid the heightened conflict, the US State Department has issued an advisory for American citizens in Lebanon, urging them to leave the country while commercial flights are still available. The US raised its travel advisory for Lebanon in July following another Israeli strike that killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut.