Piling on, Smotrich accuses Qatar of working with Hamas to sink hostage talks

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accuses Qatar of thwarting Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas, alleging that the Gulf state is “cooperating with Hamas” to keep hostages the terror group kidnapped from Israel as a bargaining chip to halt the fighting and thereby preserve Hamas’s rule in the coastal enclave.

“Qatar encourages terrorism, finances terrorism, pushes terror and is playing a double game,” says Smotrich at a conference of the Israel Defense and Security Forum in Ashkelon.

Yesterday, Qatar said it was appalled at a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had badmouthed the country, which hosts Hamas’s leaders and played a key role in negotiating the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Smotrich, who said yesterday that Doha would have no part in postwar Gaza, keeps up the criticism.

“Qatar is the biggest obstacle for returning the hostages. We could get all 136 hostages tomorrow if Qatar would give Hamas an ultimatum to return all the hostages, and if the West would give Qatar an ultimatum to do that.

“Qatar has a clear interest in preserving Hamas, its survival and its rule in Gaza and outside of it on the day after. And it is doing everything to thwart our efforts, of the State of Israel, to totally destroy the military and governance capabilities of Hamas.”

The Religious Zionism party head says that the US has substantial leverage over Qatar and could pressure it to force Hamas to release the hostages.

“There are people with deep financial interests linked with Qatar. This is huge hypocrisy, and Israel needs to remove the mask from this hypocrisy,” he adds.