Netanyahu held secret talks with Hamas during 2014 Gaza war, report says; PM’s office denies

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly oversaw private direct negotiations with a senior Hamas official during the 2014 Gaza war, without the knowledge of Israeli security officials.

The Prime Minister’s Office denied the Thursday report from the Walla news site, which cited a former senior member of Israel’s National Security Council.

According to the report, Netanyahu was put in contact with Hamas official Ghazi Hamad by Netanyahu’s business associate, Shlomi Fogel, a figure previously said to be involved in Israel-blessed Qatari cash transfers to Hamas, who has admitted speaking with the terror group in the past.

At the time, Hamad was a deputy minister in Hamas’s government in Gaza.

The communications between Netanyahu and Hamad took place at the same time as official negotiations were underway in Cairo to end the monthlong war, the report said, adding that the Cairo delegation was unaware of Netanyahu’s backchannel talks. Conversations were held by telephone between Fogel and Hamad, and the messages passed along were formulated by then-head of the National Security Council, Yossi Cohen, the report said.

At some point, defense officials became aware of the covert backchannel talks, and Fogel was twice questioned by security officials, but reportedly was able to show that he was acting on behalf of Netanyahu and Cohen.

The Prime Minister’s Office said no such talks ever took place, calling the claims “false briefings by political elements trying to harm the prime minister.”

A statement on behalf of Fogel likewise denied the report, saying he was “never sent by the prime minister or national security adviser to carry out contacts with Ghazi Hamad or other Hamas entities. It is fake news.”

Yashar chair and election frontrunner Gadi Eisenkot said in response to the report that “every day, the explanation for why Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his life to thwart the establishment of a state committee of inquiry… becomes clearer,” referring to a top-level probe of the devastating Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel.

“For the umpteenth time, we are exposed to the failures of the Netanyahu government,” the former military chief said, accusing the premier of using “disorder, lies, and tactics of divide and conquer as a method of management.”

Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman declared in response to the report that the prime minister is a “danger to Israel’s security.”

“Netanyahu is the one who initiated the transfer of suitcases full of dollars to Hamas and personally offered immunity to terror leaders,” said the hawkish lawmaker. “Netanyahu corresponded with Yahya Sinwar. Netanyahu is a danger to Israel’s security.”

He reiterated the opposition parties’ pledge to establish a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the October 7 attack, if elected in October, when Israel is set to hold a Knesset election.

Former prime minister and current head of the B’Yachad party, Naftali Bennett, who was a cabinet minister under Netanyahu in 2014, posted to X that the prime minister is “no longer capable of taking care of our security and certainly not of overcoming the enemy.”

Last year, business daily TheMarker reported that billionaire shipping magnate Fogel played a direct role in coordinating Qatari cash transfers to Hamas in Gaza in recent years, with Israel’s approval.

It came amid investigations into illegal ties between Qatar and several of Netanyahu’s aides, as well as accusations that the Israeli premier helped prop up Hamas while catastrophically miscalculating the terror group’s intentions.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from Qatar were delivered by hand to Gaza between 2018 and 2021, money approved by Israel in hopes of keeping a lid on simmering tensions in the Strip amid sky-high unemployment.

IDF kills Sinwar bodyguard, other Oct. 7 terrorist

The revelations came even as violence continued in the Strip despite a ceasefire.

The Israel Defense Forces told the Times of Israel that it targeted a terror operative in Gaza City, with further details to be provided later.

Palestinian media reported one dead and several wounded in the drone strike.

Earlier, the IDF announced that a strike in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis on Sunday killed the former bodyguard of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

The bodyguard, Hazem Musa, was a member of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force, and on October 7, 2023, he raided the IDF’s Re’im Base on the border with the Strip, according to the army.

Another strike in Khan Younis, on Monday, killed Razek Sahil Suleiman Abu Shahma, also a Nukhba Force terrorist who invaded the Re’im Base on October 7, according to the IDF.

Abu Shahma also previously served as Sinwar’s bodyguard, the military said.

The IDF justified the strikes during the ceasefire by saying that both terrorists had been advancing attacks on troops and civilians, as well as trying to restore Hamas capabilities, “all in violation of the ceasefire agreement.”

The strikes were carried out to “remove the threat,” the military said.

Additionally, the Israeli Air Force bombed a Hamas site in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, which the IDF said Thursday was located next to a hospital and school.

The facility in Jabalia had served Hamas as an “ambush position,” as well as to store weapons, according to the military. The IDF said that recently, Hamas planned attacks and worked to restore the terror group’s capabilities from the building.

The strike killed several Hamas operatives, according to the army.

The military said the “ambush position” was located some 50 meters from the military’s Yellow Line in the area, and had therefore “posed a threat to IDF troops operating in the area.”

It was also located some 70 meters from Kamal Adwan Hospital, and 170 meters from a school, the IDF said.

In recent months, the IDF has stepped up its efforts to kill Palestinian terrorists involved in October 7, justifying the strikes amid the ceasefire by claiming that the targets had “posed an immediate threat.”

Katz issues kite warning

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel’s warning period to Hamas regarding the launching of kites from the Strip at Gaza border communities has expired.

The warning period was given “following the launch of balloons and kites from the Gaza Strip toward communities in the Negev has expired. We made clear that, from our perspective, every launch is an act of terrorism in every respect — and we will treat it as such,” he said.

After an increase in such incidents last week, there have not been any launches of kites from Gaza in recent days.

“From now on, every launch will be met with a forceful response against those responsible, the organizers and perpetrators, as well as against the launch sites and infrastructure used by them,” Katz said.

The recent kites revived memories of waves of incendiary and explosive-carrying kites and balloons launched from Gaza in previous years, notably in 2018-21, some of which sparked massive fires in southern Israel.

Israel warned Hamas on Sunday that it would step up operations in Gaza if launches of kites, drones and balloons toward Israel continued, after a recent increase in such incidents. Hamas has denied responsibility.