TURKIYE IN DISCUSSIONS WITH SHIN BET OVER POSSIBLE ROLE IN NEGOTIATIONS WITH HAMAS

Tue 19 November 2024:

The head of the Turkish intelligence service, Ibrahim Kalin, met with the director of the Israeli internal security agency, Ronen Bar, during a secret visit to Turkiye on Saturday. The two security officials discussed the issue of Israeli captives held in the Gaza Strip, Israeli website Walla reported yesterday.

The website quoted “informed” sources, who said that the meeting between the Shin Bet head and Kalin was within the framework of “efforts to resume negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal”. The agenda included the possibility of Turkiye providing “assistance” in the issue.

A senior Israeli official who spoke to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper explained that Turkiye will not assume the role of mediator in a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, indicating that its role may be limited to putting pressure on the Palestinian resistance movement.

The official stressed that Egypt will be the main mediator in the process, especially after Qatar’s announcement last week that it had informed Hamas and Israel that it would freeze its mediation efforts until they show seriousness and a real will to resume talks.

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Earlier on Monday, a Turkish diplomatic source who spoke to Reuters denied reports that the Hamas political bureau had relocated from Qatar to Turkiye, adding that the movement’s leaders visit the country from time to time. Hamas also denied the reports, describing them as “mere rumours that the [Israeli] occupation tries to promote from time to time.”

The website noted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a lengthy meeting last night with senior ministers and heads of security services to discuss efforts to release the hostages. During the meeting, Bar provided details of his talks in Turkiye, according to the sources. Mossad spy chief David Barnea presented the Israeli strategy to push for the resumption of negotiations in an attempt to release the Israeli captives in Gaza.

The heads of the Israeli security services — Barnea, Bar, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and the army’s representative for the hostage file, Nitzan Alon — made it clear at the meeting that Hamas refuses to back down from its demands for an end to the war and for the Israeli army to withdraw from the Gaza Strip. They pointed out that if the government wants to reach a deal, it must reconsider the current Israeli position, while the government insists on continuing its genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Speaking on Monday at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the failure of a hostage deal and insisted that, “Anyone who claims that Israel is responsible for the failure of the deal is harming the negotiations.”

-MEMO

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