Walla: The details of the secret meeting held between the head of the Israeli Shabak and Turkish intelligence in Ankara

The Israeli Walla website, said on Monday evening, that the head of the Israeli General Security Service (Shabak), Ronen Bar, made a secret visit to Türkiye last Saturday, where he discussed with the head of the Turkish Intelligence Service, Ibrahim Kalin, the Israeli hostages issue in the Gaza Strip.

Walla website indicated that the meeting between Bar and Kalin came within the framework of efforts to resume negotiations on a prisoner exchange deal, and to discuss the possibility of Türkiye providing assistance in this issue.

A senior Israeli official told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that Türkiye won’t play the role of mediator in a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, noting that its role may be limited to pressuring Hamas.

The Israeli official stressed that Egypt will be the main party that will undertake the mediation process, especially after Qatar’s recent announcement.

Doha had announced last week that it had informed Hamas and Israel that it would freeze mediation efforts until they demonstrated seriousness and a real will to resume talks.

Earlier, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters that reports that Hamas’s political bureau had been moved from Qatar to Türkiye were false, adding that leaders of Hamas visit the country from time to time.

Hamas also denied the reports, describing them as “mere rumors that the Israeli occupation tries to spread from time to time”.

Walla website pointed out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a long meeting last night with the participation of senior ministers and heads of security services to discuss the efforts being made to release the hostages.

During the meeting, Ronen Bar briefed the attendees on the details of his talks in Türkiye, according to the sources, while Mossad chief David Barnea reviewed the Israeli strategy to push for the resumption of negotiations in an attempt to release Israeli prisoners in Gaza.

During the meeting, the heads of the security services – the head of the Mossad, the head of the Shin Bet, the Chief of Staff, Herzi Halevi, and the army’s representative on the hostages issue, Nitzan Alon – made it clear that Hamas refuses to back down from its demands to stop the war and for the Israeli army to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

The security chiefs stressed that if Hamas wanted to reach a deal, it would be necessary to reconsider the current Israeli position, while the government insists on continuing the genocidal war it’s waging on the Gaza Strip.

In a statement to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today, Netanyahu said that the meeting held last night was serious, but stressed that whoever claims that Israel is responsible for the deal’s failure is harming the negotiations.

During the Knesset plenum session, which witnessed a tense atmosphere and boos from the families of prisoners and opposition Knesset members, this evening, Netanyahu tried to evade the criticism directed at him regarding the prisoner exchange issue, and held Hamas responsible for the failure of the deal.