CIA chief travels to Paris to revive Gaza truce talks

CIA Director William Burns will be in Paris on Friday or Saturday to try to revive negotiations with Israel for a new truce in Gaza, a Western source familiar with the case told AFP. 

Israel on Thursday authorised the resumption of negotiations, which would also involve the release of hostages in Gaza. Negotiations for a new truce with the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been stalled for weeks. 

The Western source consulted thus partly confirmed information previously published by the US media. 

According to the Axios website, the CIA director is due to visit Europe "in the next few days" to meet with the head of the Israeli Mossad and the prime minister of Qatar in order to relaunch talks on a truce in Gaza. 

In late January, William Burns and senior officials from Egypt, Qatar and Israel met in Paris to discuss a Gaza truce agreement. 

In early May, indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the US, failed to produce a truce agreement accompanied by the release of Palestinian hostages and prisoners in Israeli jails. 

The conflict began on 7 October with Hamas's surprise attack on several points in southern Israel, in which more than 1,170 people were killed, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli sources. 

Of the 252 people abducted on 7 October, 124 were still in Gaza. 

Three bodies of hostages were found on Friday, bringing the number of hostages to 121, of whom 37 were killed, according to the Israeli army. 

In response to the attack, Israel unleashed an offensive aimed at "annihilating" Hamas that has so far killed more than 35,800 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is ruled by the Palestinian Islamist movement.