Israeli media accounts alleged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu authorized unofficial lines of communication with Hamas in two separate periods, including during the 2014 Gaza war. Netanyahu’s office denied both accounts, and a businessman named as an intermediary in the earlier episode also rejected the claim.
The first account concerned negotiations over hostages in 2025. Reports broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 and Channel 13 said Netanyahu gave Ronen Bar, who was then leading the Shin Bet security service, permission to communicate with Hamas representatives outside Gaza. The reported effort began as negotiations were stalled before a planned second stage of an agreement in January of that year.
According to those accounts, the contact did not run through Qatar, despite its central role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas. The reports credited the line with helping negotiators move past an impasse that had persisted since the middle of 2024 and with contributing to subsequent hostage releases. Bar was also said to have briefed Cabinet members about the arrangement during 2025.
Publication of the information had previously been prevented by Israel’s military censor, Ynetnews reported. The restriction was lifted on Thursday, allowing the broadcasters to describe the alleged channel. The available report did not include documentary records of the exchanges or an on-the-record confirmation from Bar or Hamas.
A different allegation, attributed to journalist Ben Caspit, focused on Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Caspit reported that Shlomi Fogel, a business figure close to Netanyahu, passed communications to senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad. Under that account, Netanyahu set the substance and negotiating approach for messages delivered through Fogel.
The purported discussions would have occurred while an official Israeli delegation was simultaneously taking part in talks in Cairo. Caspit’s account further said some parts of Israel’s security establishment did not know about the additional route at the time. No independently verified material establishing those assertions was described in the supplied reporting.
The Prime Minister’s Office characterized the 2025 story as untrue and said Netanyahu had declined direct negotiation with Hamas, leaving contacts to established mediators. It separately said he neither approved nor conducted the alleged 2014 exchanges and accused political opponents of promoting a damaging false narrative. Fogel likewise denied serving in the role attributed to him.
The competing versions left the central claims unresolved: media reports described channels that allegedly operated outside the publicly known process, while all parties identified as authorizing or facilitating the 2014 contact denied it. Without corroborating records or further named testimony, the allegations remained reported accounts rather than established findings.
