JERUSALEM – Talks held on Jan 28 initiated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt to broker a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas were “constructive” but meaningful gaps remain, a statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said.
The statement said the summit was held in Europe and that the parties would continue to hold discussions during additional meetings planned for later this week.
“There are still significant gaps in which the parties will continue to discuss this week in additional mutual meetings,” the statement said.
“Qatar hosts the leaders of Hamas. It also funds Hamas. It has leverage over Hamas,” Mr Netanyahu said in a televised news conference. “So they should be so good as to apply their pressure. They positioned themselves as mediators – so please go right ahead, let them be so good as to bring back our hostages.”
Qatar and Egypt have open channels to Israel and Hamas, and brokered a November truce in which Hamas freed some of the 253 people it seized in an Oct 7 cross-border rampage that triggered the Gaza war.
In return, Israel approved increased aid for the devastated enclave and released scores of Palestinian prisoners.
Efforts to get a follow-up deal to return at least some of the 132 remaining hostages appear to be flagging, and protests in Israel demanding that the government do more are spreading.
There was no immediate Qatari response to Mr Netanyahu’s comments.
On Jan 24, the Foreign Ministry in Doha said it was “appalled” by remarks by Mr Netanyahu, leaked to Israeli TV, in which he described himself as refraining from thanking Qatar for its mediation and deemed the gas-rich emirate “problematic”.
Asked in his Jan 27 briefing about that exchange, Mr Netanyahu said: “I don’t take back a single word.”
Israel has long had fraught relations with Qatar, which does not formally recognise it and is close to its arch-enemy, Iran.
After the last Gaza war, in 2014, Israel agreed to Qatar pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into Palestinian reconstruction in what both countries described as a means of staving off further conflict.
Doha cited the cooperation as a testament to its distance from Hamas militancy, and sought to parlay its Gaza relief efforts into better relations with Israel ally Washington.
The four-way meeting follows public criticism by Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Jan 24 of Israel, which he accused of holding up aid deliveries to Gaza in order to generate pressure for the release of hostages.
Israel says it places no limits on aid brought into Gaza, as long as it undergoes security inspection, and Mr Netanyahu appeared to cast Mr Sisi’s remarks as designed for domestic consumption.
“Relations with Egypt are managed in an ongoing and proper manner, between the governments, all the time,” he said.
“Each of us, of course, has its interests. Egypt has the need to say certain things. I will not elaborate on this matter.” REUTERS
