‘Complete fiction’: Blinken denies Haaretz report that he urged waiting on immediate hostage deal

9 September 2026, 8:13 pm

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the Atlantic Council in Washington, on January 14, 2025. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state at the time of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack, denies a report in Haaretz that he urged Qatar’s prime minister to “wait” on mediating an offer from the terror group on the day of the attack to release the civilian hostages it had abducted.

Blinken calls that report “complete fiction” in a post on X.

The report was part of a bombshell Haaretz article claiming that the president of the UAE warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of an imminent Hamas attack shortly before October 7, and that the premier did not relay the warning to Israel’s security brass. Netanyahu has denied that report and threatened to sue Haaretz.

Haaretz reports later in the article that by the evening of October 7, when the scope of the massacre was beginning to come clear, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani called Blinken and said, “There are hundreds of hostages in Gaza, and among them, in my estimation, dozens of civilians. They need to be released now. I offered the Israelis to mediate a quick deal for their release, but they are not interested.”

The article says Blinken responded, “Let’s wait,” and added, “I will speak with Netanyahu personally.”

Blinken also reportedly said he would travel to Israel in three days.

“Right now, the situation is complex,” Blinken said, according to Haaretz. “Israel is still under attack, and there’s no one to talk to. We will wait three days.”

But Blinken denies that report in a post on X, highlighting the first quote and writing, “For the record, this is false. Complete fiction.”