Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday has okayed a delegation to resume talks with Hamas in Qatar for a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange deal, reports said. The delegation will visit Qatar later this week to hold talks.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today held an in-depth discussion on the issue of the abductees together with the negotiation team and senior security officials. Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed to send out a negotiating delegation this Thursday,” read a translated tweet from Hebrew posted on Netanyahu’s official X account.

According to Xinhua news agency, the delegation will be headed by Mossad Chief David Barnea. The team will reach Doha on Thursday and “engage in indirect negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt and supported by the US”.

The new round of negotiations has been delayed as Hamas stopped talks in protest over an Israeli attack on Khan Younis on July 13. The said strike reportedly accounted for the lives of at least 90 Palestinians.

So far, talks in Qatar have failed to produce an agreement between Israel and Hamas to end the conflict in Gaza, which has been going on since October 2023.