Washington, United States–CIA Director Bill Burns is expected in Cairo for talks on freeing hostages held in Gaza, which the White House confirmed Friday would take place this weekend with US representation.
US media reported that Burns would meet in the Egyptian capital with Mossad chief David Barnea, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to say if Burns would be involved but told journalists that “the United States will be present for those talks.”
Kirby also said one of US President Joe Biden requests to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a call the day before was “getting back at the table in negotiations in Cairo and getting a hostage deal done, empowering his negotiators to come to (a) conclusion on this.”
Hamas launched a shock attack on October 7 attack that resulted in the deaths of about 1,170 Israelis and foreigners, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Palestinian resistance fighters also took around 250 hostages, about 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 whom the Israeli army says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 33,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have been engaged in weeks of behind-the-scenes talks in a bid to secure a truce in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.