Within the leaked audio, the Israeli prime minister is heard criticizing Doha in its function in negotiating the discharge of prisoners held by Hamas.
Households of Israeli prisoners in Gaza stated they denied they had been behind the leak of audio during which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Qatar's function in talks with Hamas over the discharge of the prisoners.
“All conversations that befell in conferences with the Prime Minister are recorded by his workplace and his associates current on the assembly,” Haim Rubinstein, a spokesman for the households, stated Thursday in a press release cited on the Israeli media.
“Households collaborating within the assembly took their telephones on the entrance,” he stated, including that the leak was a “significant issue that signifies a lack of management.”
His remark got here a day after the prime minister's workplace charged one of many relations with the escape.
Israeli media Walla on Thursday stated the prime minister's workplace doubled down on blaming the households, saying it has proof within the type of a textual content message from one in every of its members current on the assembly.
“The woman subsequent to me had a cellphone, it's a disgrace I didn't discover her,” the message reads, in accordance with Walla.
Within the audio that triggered the controversy, which was broadcast on Tuesday by Israel's Channel 12, Netanyahu is heard saying that Qatar's involvement within the launch of the prisoners was “problematic”.
He additionally blamed Qatar for financing Hamas and stated he was sorry for a choice by the USA to increase the presence of a army base within the Gulf state.
Majed Al-Ansari, the spokesman for Qatar's overseas ministry, responded to the remarks by saying he was “dismayed”.
About 240 individuals had been taken prisoner by Hamas fighters as they launched an unprecedented assault in southern Israel on October 7, killing no less than 1,139 individuals, in accordance with an Al Jazeera account primarily based on Israeli statistics.
Israel responded with a devastating bombardment and land invasion of Gaza, which displaced greater than 80 p.c of the inhabitants and diminished a lot of the territory to rubble. Palestinian officers say no less than 25,700 individuals have been killed and greater than 63,000 wounded within the Israeli assault.
After prolonged negotiations led by Qatar and the USA, greater than 100 of these captured had been launched in late November in trade for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails whereas Israel and Hamas noticed a week-long truce.
The Gulf state stays concerned in talks geared toward securing a brand new deal for the discharge of round 130 prisoners nonetheless held by Hamas and different Palestinian armed teams.
Al-Ansari stated Netanyahu's leaked feedback had been detrimental to these efforts.
“If the reported observations are discovered to be true, the Israeli prime minister will solely impede and undermine the mediation course of, for causes that appear to serve his political profession as an alternative of prioritizing the security of harmless lives, together with Israeli hostages,” he stated.
