Israeli Ground Troops Rescue Hostage, After Mossad Chief's Secretive Trip To Qatar

"Axios has revealed that the head of Mossad, David Barnea, made a secretive weekend trip to Qatar where he met with senior Qatari officials as part of mediation efforts to secure the release of Israeli and foreign hostages.
According to the latest update, over 235 are in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) captivity, and Qatar remains the chief third party communicating with both Tel Aviv and Hamas. But Israeli officials have described that the ground offensive was launched after it became clear that the talks had born no fruit. Barnea was in Doha as the ground invasion kicked off and progressed....Israel Defense Forces (IDF) made the unexpected announcement that one hostage, a military member who had been taken on Oct.7, has been rescued alive from the battlefield.....Hamas has also announced it is engaged in "heavy fighting… with the invading occupation force", after the IDF confirmed more Israeli troops have been surged into the Strip. It appears the warring sides are in some locales engaged in building-to-building and door-to-door fighting in the dense urban zone." ZH