Israel’s security cabinet is set to meet today to discuss the “mandate” of a delegation due to travel to Doha for talks on a truce in Gaza, the prime minister’s office has said, AFP reports.

The security cabinet and the smaller, five-member war cabinet will meet Sunday to “decide on the mandate of the delegation in charge of the negotiations before its departure for Doha,” a statement said, without specifying when the delegation would leave.

Israel did not send a delegation to recent truce talks in Cairo. The decision to send a delegation to Doha comes as Hamas has submitted a new proposal for a six-week pause in fighting in exchange for the release of some hostages as well as Palestinian prisoners. Previously Hamas had insisted that any further hostage releases would be contingent on a durable ceasefire.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, a member of the war cabinet, held a meeting on Saturday focused on the return of hostages that included “representatives of the negotiation team”, his office said in a statement.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X on Saturday that he opposed sending a delegation to more hostage talks.

“Hamas’s delusional stance shows that the supporters of the deal in the war cabinet and the security establishment have lost the plot,” he said on X. “It’s time to sober up the concepts and learn from the mistakes.”

Editorial

31 Jul, 2026

Expanding conflict

WITH neither of the belligerents willing to back down, and the theatre of conflict expanding geographically, the...
31 Jul, 2026

Spoils and spats

A FIGHT over assembly seats in Azad Jammu and Kashmir has laid bare what seem to be some deep resentments between ...
31 Jul, 2026

Unfair tax system

THE disclosure that the FBR collected nearly Rs1.9tr in sales and income taxes through electricity bills over the...
30 Jul, 2026

Debt that stays

THE power sector’s circular debt grew by Rs61bn in the last fiscal year, taking the total to roughly Rs1.67tr from...
30 Jul, 2026

HIV warning

THE HIV infections detected around two SESSI-run hospitals in Karachi demand far more than another hurried committee...
30 Jul, 2026

End trafficking

MODERN slavery, in the form of human trafficking, is among the state’s gravest failures. Scores of Pakistanis are...