Netanyahu confidant ‘lashed out’ at US envoy over direct talks with Hamas — official
Dermer fumes at Boehler for discussing number of prisoners Israel would release for American hostages without Netanyahu’s consent; Israel had warned against such a meet in February
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer “lashed out” at US hostage envoy Adam Boehler during a Tuesday phone call held after Israel learned of an unprecedented meeting that the Trump aide held with a senior Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya earlier that day in Doha to discuss the potential release of American hostages from Gaza, a Western official told The Times of Israel on Friday.
Dermer fumed over Boehler discussing the number of Palestinian prisoners Israel would release in exchange for the five Israeli-American hostages still in Gaza, one of them alive and four believed dead, without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s consent, the official said, confirming reporting in the Axios news site.
Boehler tried to explain that these were only initial discussions with Hamas and that nothing would be finalized without Israel’s approval, the Western official said.
Hours after the tense call was held, Boehler’s meeting with Hayya was leaked to the media, in a move that the US believes Israel was behind and which has led to a further decrease in trust between the sides, the Western official added.
The US decision not to loop Israel in ahead of the Tuesday meeting came after Netanyahu expressed his opposition to the idea when it was first proposed to him by the Trump administration last month, the official said. Axios noted that Israel was particularly against such a meeting going ahead without any preconditions for Hamas to meet.
Tuesday’s wasn’t the first meeting that Boehler held with Hamas officials, Axios revealed, adding that the Trump envoy met with a lower-level delegation of officials from the terror group a week earlier in Doha but that Israel ostensibly didn’t get wind of that meeting.
The meetings largely focused on securing the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, along with the bodies of American-Israeli hostages Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Gadi Haggai and Judith Weinstein. The sit-downs also included discussions on a broader deal between Israel and Hamas to release all remaining hostages and end the war sparked by the terror group’s October 2023 massacre in southern Israel, the Western official said.
Israel has avoided publicly criticizing the US over its unprecedented direct talks with Hamas, but Netanyahu’s office issued a terse statement on Wednesday that more than hinted at its opposition. “Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas,” the statement read.
Israel’s opposition to the direct US-Hamas talks stems largely from its concern that the US might lose interest in securing a broad hostage-ceasefire deal once all American hostages are released, the official said.
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff sought to address those concerns, insisting Thursday that Washington is determined to release all of the hostages.
Still, he acknowledged that Alexander is a priority for the administration, and he indicated that it wants Hamas to release the 20-year-old IDF soldier as a demonstration of goodwill.
“Edan Alexander is very important to us — as all the hostages are — but Edan Alexander is an American, and he’s injured, so he’s a top priority for us,” Witkoff told reporters during a gaggle outside the White House.
He appeared to confirm that Alexander’s release was a topic of conversation in the direct talks that Boehler held with Hamas, while lamenting that those discussions have not yet paid dividends.
“Unfortunately, what we learned is that Hamas told us they were going to be thinking about it a certain way… That’s important information for us to have. And so came the tweet from the president,” Witkoff said, referencing Trump’s ultimatum from Wednesday night warning Hamas of destruction if it didn’t immediately release the hostages.
Trump has issued such ultimatums before, doing so ahead of his January 20 inauguration when the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas was still being finalized. While the threat then was against Hamas, Witkoff has been widely credited with leaning on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to the framework after holding off on doing so for months under then-US president Joe Biden.
While Trump’s ultimatum referred to all of the hostages, and the deal subsequently reached has only seen 33 released in the first phase, the president’s allies pointed to his public messaging as having been critical in freeing the hostages.
Trump issued another “all hell to pay” ultimatum last month after Hamas threatened not to release any hostages the following weekend as agreed upon in the deal. Hamas subsequently agreed to release the three hostages after receiving assurances from mediators that they would address Israeli violations of the deal regarding the entry of reconstruction equipment.
Then, too, Trump talked about all hostages being released and Hamas responded with something less than that — the three that it had initially agreed to free. Still, the president credited his threat as having been instrumental in moving the terror group.
The Western official said that with his latest ultimatum on Wednesday, issued after the president’s meeting a group of released hostages in the Oval Office, Trump is staking a maximalist position, while being open to receiving something less from Hamas — be it the remaining American hostages or a larger group that the so-called “Witkoff proposal” envisions being released in exchange for extending the ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover, which ends on April 19.
During that period, the sides would hold negotiations regarding the terms of a permanent ceasefire, with Hamas releasing the remaining hostages at the end of that period, if an agreement is reached. These were at least the terms of the proposal as described by Netanyahu’s office on Saturday night.
Hamas has come out against the proposal, thus far, insisting that Israel stick to the phased framework that was inked in January, which requires the IDF to fully withdraw from Gaza and agree to permanently end the war during the second phase.
The second phase was supposed to start on Sunday, but that commencement was pending negotiations on the terms, which Israel has largely refused to hold for over a month.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar claimed earlier this month that Israel had received a side letter from the Biden administration saying there was no automatic transition between the phases of the truce. However, that commitment anticipated Israel engaging in good-faith talks with Hamas regarding phase two, which hasn’t happened.
Trump on Thursday defended his administration’s unprecedented direct negotiations with Hamas, saying they were being conducted for the benefit of Israel and to secure the release of Israeli hostages.
“We are helping Israel in those discussions because we’re talking about Israeli hostages,” Trump told reporters while signing executive orders in the Oval Office.
“We’re not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We’re not giving cash,” he continued. “You have to negotiate. There’s a difference between negotiating and paying. We want to get these people out.”
