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, according to a report from the Walla news site, which cited a former senior member of Israel’s National Security Council.
The Prime Minister’s Office denied the account Thursday, calling the claims false briefings by political elements trying to harm the prime minister. The report says the backchannel ran through Shlomi Fogel, a business associate of Netanyahu who was previously said to be involved in Israel-blessed Qatari cash transfers to Hamas, and that the messages were formulated by the then-head of the National Security Council. At the time, the Hamas-side contact was Ghazi Hamad, a deputy minister in Hamas’s government in Gaza.
The backchannel ran in parallel with the official Egyptian-brokered negotiations in Cairo, aimed at ending the 50-day war. The Cairo delegation was not aware of the parallel track, the report says. Defense officials eventually became suspicious; Fogel was twice questioned by security services, but reportedly demonstrated that he was acting on behalf of Netanyahu and the NSC chief.
Opposition seizes on it ahead of the October election
Gadi Eisenkot, chair of the Yashar party and a polling leader, said the report made the case for a state commission of inquiry into the failures of October 7, 2023, more urgent. Avigdor Liberman, chair of Yisrael Beytenu, called Netanyahu a danger to Israel’s security. Former prime minister Naftali Bennett posted on X that the prime minister is no longer capable of taking care of our security.
The report lands days after the IDF chief of staff ordered a major strengthening of forces in the West Bank, and as the Iran war approaches its six-month mark.
Source: The Times of Israel, 29 August 2026.