CIA director headed abroad for Gaza hostage talks: US officials

CIA Director Bill Burns will soon travel to Europe to meet with Middle Eastern officials as part of an ambitious push to lock down an agreement that would free all of the hostages kidnapped during Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel that are still being held inside of Gaza in exchange for a prolonged cessation of hostilities, according to U.S. officials familiar with the plans.

The officials said Burns will speak with counterparts from Israel as well as Qatar and Egypt — two countries that have worked as intermediaries between Hamas and other nations since the conflict began. The United States has designated Hamas as a terrorist group.

Various proposals have been discussed during recent weeks, and while officials declined to share specific contours of any deal currently under consideration, they expressed confidence that the release of all detainees in Gaza could be secured by a single diplomatic agreement.

While negotiators still face significant hurdles, the officials' view that such a deal could be achieved is significant because it was previously believed that some of the hostages in Gaza were held by other groups outside of Hamas' control and that the terrorist organization may be unwilling to relinquish captured Israeli soldiers.

Roughly 130 hostages are still imprisoned in Gaza, including as many as six Americans, according to the Israeli and U.S. governments.

The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel's founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire in November that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.

The negotiations will also include securing the return of remains of the dozens of dead hostages the Israeli government says