Netanyahu held direct talks with Hamas behind security establishment's back during 2014 Gaza war

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held direct contact and negotiations with Hamas behind the security establishment's back during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, using Israeli businessman Shlomi Fogel as an intermediary.

The talks did not follow the traditional channels used in negotiations between Israel and Hamas over the years, which involved Egypt, Qatar, or another intermediary. Instead, the parties spoke directly.

The discussions differed from the negotiations Netanyahu previously held with Yahya Sinwar - during which Sinwar sent the famous note reading “Take a calculated risk” to then National Security Council chief Meir Ben Shabbat - as even those contacts were conducted through a third party, Egypt.

This time, Fogel was sent by Netanyahu, under the guidance of then National Security Council chief Yossi Cohen, to speak directly with senior Hamas figure Razi Hamed in the Gaza Strip.

The conversations took place by phone and continued for several weeks, with Netanyahu setting the guidelines, Cohen shaping the messages, and Fogel conducting the talks.

Defense officials confronted Netanyahu, who reportedly denied involvement

Netanyahu, who sought a ceasefire during Operation Protective Edge, sent a security delegation to Egypt that included generals Fuli Mordechai, Nimrod Sheffer, Amos Gilad, and then-Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen. The delegation conducted ceasefire negotiations through Egyptian mediators with representatives of Hamas and other factions in Gaza.

However, the negotiations stalled, and no breakthrough was achieved. At one point, defense officials discovered, to their surprise, that while the Israeli delegation was traveling back and forth from Cairo, a secret backchannel was operating in parallel. Through that channel, the prime minister was engaging directly with Hamas without the knowledge of the defense establishment.

Officials later learned that Fogel, who was close to Netanyahu, was the person conducting the talks with Hamed, who at the time served as deputy minister in the Hamas government in Gaza.

Senior defense officials confronted Netanyahu and asked him for an explanation. Netanyahu denied the matter and instructed them to contact Fogel and ask him to stop. However, it later became clear that Fogel had been acting with authorization and approval, behind the defense establishment’s back.

Fogel was initially warned, but after he continued the contacts despite the warning, officials discovered that he was acting with Netanyahu’s approval. Netanyahu directed his actions, while Cohen drafted the messages for him.

Hamed is a known Hamas terrorist, currently serving as chairman of the Gaza Energy Authority and previously serving as deputy foreign minister and adviser to senior figures in Hamas’s military wing. He conducted the ceasefire discussions with Fogel, who was managing them on Netanyahu’s behalf.

When the existence of the channel became known, the reaction among the heads of Israel’s security branches was one of complete shock.

“People’s jaws dropped,” one anonymous security official told Maariv.

“This was 2014; it was not the situation today, when Netanyahu had already declared war on the entire system long ago. He appointed all of us; he sent us to conduct negotiations in Cairo, and at the same time he was conducting direct negotiations with Hamas without us knowing about it."

"When this was confronted with him, he denied it. But when Shlomi Fogel was called in and questioned about it, he proved to us that everything was done with authorization and approval. This was a formative event, a kind of writing that was already on the wall, but we did not see it.”