TEL AVIV: Israel has canceled a planned trip to Qatar by the head of its foreign intelligence service to restart talks on a potential second prisoner release deal with Hamas, CNN reported on Thursday.

Mossad director David Barnea will not travel to Doha, where previous talks on the release of prisoners held by Hamas in Gaza have taken place, the source said.

The Israeli war cabinet, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, decided to cancel the trip and negotiations with senior officials will not resume in Qatar.

Israel’s ambassador to Britain, meanwhile, said that Israel would not accept a two-state solution with the Palestinians after the Gaza crisis ends.

Tzipi Hotovely told Sky News that she did not believe in the long-standing position of the UK government and the United Nations that an independent Palestinian state should be established. “The answer is absolutely no,” Hotovely said when pressed on the issue.

UK Prime Minister Sunak said in response that he didn’t agree with Hotovely’s remarks.

“Our long-standing position is that the two-state solution remains the right outcome here,” he told reporters. He had told Israel that his country “must take every available precaution to protect innocent civilian lives”.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2023