US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid a push to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, Mr Netanyahu's office said.
Following the meeting, Mr Netanyahu instructed the heads of the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security agency as well as General Nitzan Alon and foreign policy adviser Ophir Falk "to depart for Doha in order to continue advancing a deal to release our hostages", the statement said.
Earlier, an Israeli official said some progress had been made in the indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the United States, to reach a deal in Gaza.
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The mediators are making renewed efforts to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the enclave and free the remaining Israeli hostages held there before Mr Trump takes office on 20 January.
A deal would also involve the release of some Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Families of Israeli hostages welcomed Mr Netanyahu's decision to dispatch the officials, with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters describing it as a "historic opportunity."
Mr Witkoff arrived in Doha yesterday and met the Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar's foreign ministry said.
Egyptian and Qatari mediators received reassurances from Mr Witkoff that the US would continue to work towards a fair deal to end the war soon, Egyptian security sources said, though he did not give any details.
Eight killed in Israeli strike on Gaza school, rescuers say
Gaza's civil defence agency has said an Israeli air strike on a school-turned-shelter killed eight people, including two children.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal confirmed eight people, including two children and two women, were killed by Israeli shelling on the Halwa school in the northern Gaza city of Jabalia.
Mr Bassal said the strike wounded 30 people, including 19 children, and that the Halwa school housed "thousands of displaced people".
The Israeli military, in a statement, acknowledged it conducted a strike on the facility.
It said the strike had targeted Hamas militants who were operating at the school and that it had taken measures to reduce the risk of harm to civilians.
Later, the Gaza Civil Emergency Service said five people were killed and several others were wounded in two Israeli strikes.
One of the two strikes killed three people in a house near the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas militant "in that area" at that approximate time.
Hamas says fate of hostage depends on Netanyahu
Palestinian militant group Hamas said the fate of a hostage held in Gaza depends on Mr Netanyahu, a day after the captive's wife appealed to the group for proof of life.
Sharon Cunio had directly addressed the group in Arabic in a video, asking for a sign that her husband David was still alive, over 450 days after he was taken to the Palestinian territory.
She too had been kidnapped alongside 250 others on 7 October 2023, but was released the following month alongside their twin daughters during the sole brief truce in the war that has raged for over 15 months.
Hamas's armed branch said that that since Ms Cunio's liberation, Israeli military pressure had surged and that her husband has "either been killed, injured or (is) in good health".
"Netanyahu has not decided yet. Time is running out," the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades added.
There are currently 94 hostages still held in Gaza, including 34 whose death has been confirmed by the Israeli army.
International outcry
A strike on the United Nations-run Al-Jawni school in central Gaza on 11 September drew international outcry after the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said six of its staff were among the 18 reported dead.
The Israeli military accuses Hamas of hiding in school buildings where thousands of Gazans have sought shelter - a charge denied by the Palestinian militant group.
Yesterday, civil defense officials and sources from local hospitals said that the Israeli army bombed several places in Gaza, killing at least 22 people, including a journalist.
Israeli warplanes bombed the Shujayea neighborhood in northern Gaza, killing eight people and injuring several others.
Israeli air strikes hit the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing seven.
The Nuseirat refugee camp was also attacked, with three people killed including a journalist, and six others were injured.
The Israeli army also launched airstrikes and artillery attacks on Khan Younis, killing at least four people.
At least 46,537 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in Gaza since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry.
The United Nations has acknowledged these figures as reliable.
The 7 October attack that triggered it resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.
