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.
