Mossad chief David Barnea returned to Israel on Monday from his 24-hour trip to Qatar to discuss proposals for a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu projected pessimism over the restarted negotiations.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Barnea, CIA chief Bill Burns, and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani discussed “a new unified proposal that combines previous proposals and also takes into account the main issues and recent developments in the region,” during their meetings in Doha.

The phrase “recent developments” is taken to refer to the killing earlier this month of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the terror group’s October 7 invasion and massacre in southern Israel. Sinwar was widely considered to be the main obstacle to productive talks between Israel and Hamas, though it remains to be seen whether negotiations can succeed in the wake of his death.

“In the coming days, the discussions between the mediators and with Hamas will continue to examine the feasibility of talks and continue to try to promote a deal,” added the PMO.

Two of the options currently being discussed are an Egyptian proposal to release four hostages during a two-day ceasefire, as well as a Qatari-American multi-stage proposal that would ultimately see all hostages released and the war ended. The meetings, which began Sunday night, tried to combine the two proposals.

According to recordings published by Channel 12 news, Netanyahu told party members at Monday’s Likud faction meeting that he would agree to Egypt’s proposed deal to free four hostages “right away”; however, he said that the idea is currently just a proposal, and does not exist without a “definite yes” from Hamas.

Netanyahu also said that Hamas continues to make demands that Israel “cannot meet,” alluding to the group’s demand for an end to the war. The prime minister said that if these conditions are removed, “it will not be because they want to remove them,” but because Hamas “simply wants room to breathe.”

“We are constantly working to try and get the hostages back,” he told his fellow party members, adding that they are “even working to find partial solutions. But it is not certain that opportunities will develop just because of Sinwar’s elimination.”

“We are being presented options that we will capitalize on,” he added, “and we will bring back whoever we can, whenever we can.”

Meanwhile, a top member of Israel’s negotiating team for the release of the hostages announced his sudden resignation. The news of Brig. Gen. Oren Setter’s resignation was first reported by the Kan public broadcaster and later confirmed by the IDF.

Setter served as a deputy to Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, the IDF’s point man in the negotiations for a hostage-ceasefire deal. Kan suggests that Setter quit the negotiation team due to the impasse in the talks.

Responding to the report, the IDF said Setter “worked tirelessly to advance the efforts to return the hostages,” since returning to the army from vacation ahead of his slated retirement last year. “The officer will return to assist the hostage headquarters in the future as well, as needed,” military said.

The news site Ynet reported that the next planned stage is to bring Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad into the talks, then move toward negotiations between working groups, where Hamas will join indirectly. The ultimate goal is to hammer out one comprehensive proposal, and to fold in a diplomatic solution to the fighting in Lebanon as well, according to the report.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Monday that neither Israel nor the mediators have received an official response from Hamas on the various circulating proposals.

Israel is “checking all possibilities” for a deal, the official continued, and is willing to negotiate over any proposal.

Still, Hamas will demand an end to the war in Gaza as a condition to any deal. “We are not willing to do that,” the official declared.

Israel still does not have a clear picture of who is making decisions on hostage talks in Hamas after Sinwar was killed: “They still haven’t had their primaries,” said the official, “and Hamas abroad is in chaos.”

Hamas sources told Saudi channel Asharq News on Sunday that the group preferred a “comprehensive deal” rather than a piecemeal one, and will present negotiators with a proposal for an immediate end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip, and the exchange of a certain number of Palestinian detainees in return for the release of all Israeli hostages at once.

The unnamed Hamas source said that “we will listen to the offers [of the negotiators] but for our part, we prefer a comprehensive deal that takes place in one stage and ends the war once and for all, in return for a prisoner exchange under which all Israeli captives are released in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.”

Several Hebrew media outlets also reported that Hamas is demanding Sinwar’s body be returned to them in any eventual agreement.

On Monday, Husam Badran, a senior member of Hamas’s Qatar-based political bureau said that the group is open to a deal with Israel.

“Our demands are clear and known, and a deal can be reached, provided that Netanyahu remains committed to what was already agreed upon,” Badran said. It was unclear whether his comments were in reaction to reports of the Egyptian proposal.

Israel believes that 97 hostages — including 34 confirmed dead by the IDF — are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, out of the 251 kidnapped on October 7. Hamas released 105 of them during a weeklong truce in late November, and four before then. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops, and the bodies of 37 hostages have been recovered from the Strip.

Close to 11 months of negotiations to free further rounds of hostages have repeatedly stalled, despite intensive efforts by the US, Egypt and Qatar to help reach a deal.