Families of Israeli hostages accuse Netanyahu’s office of leaking criticism of Qatar

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas on Thursday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leaking a tape in which he criticized Doha’s role in the swap negotiations with the Palestinian group.

"All conversations that take place in meetings with the Prime Minister are recorded by his office and his associates present at the meeting,” Haim Rubinstein, a spokesperson for the hostages’ families, said in a statement.

“The families participating in the meeting had their phones taken at the entrance,” Rubinstein said.

The spokesperson termed the leaking of Netanyahu’s comments as a “grave issue that indicates a loss of control.”

Leaked comments from Netanyahu’s meeting with relatives of the hostages showed the premier criticizing the Gulf country’s role in the prisoner swap talks with Hamas.

“Qatar, from my point of view, is no different in essence than the United Nations… and the Red Cross, [Qatar] is even more problematic,” Netanyahu said in a recording aired by Israeli Channel 12.

“I have no illusions about them. They have leverage [over Hamas]… Because [Qatar] funds them.”

Netanyahu said he got “very angry recently with the Americans” for renewing a deal to extend US military presence at a base in Qatar for another 10 years.

The leaked comments drew fire from Qatar, which accused Netanyahu of sabotaging the talks for hostage release with Hamas for political interests.

There was no comment from Netanyahu’s office on the families’ statement.

Hamas is believed to be holding nearly 136 Israelis following its cross-border attack on Oct. 7.

The Palestinian resistance group demands an end to Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip for any deal on a prisoner swap with Israel.

The Israeli government has rejected calls for halting the Gaza war until destroying Hamas and releasing hostages.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, killing at least 25,700 Palestinians and injuring 63,740 others, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio