Haaretz: Hamas Offered to Release All Civilian Hostages Hours After Oct. 7 Attack; Blinken Calls Report 'Complete Fiction'

As part of the same September 8, 2026 investigation (citing the forthcoming book 'Kidnapped: 843 Days of Abandonment' by Shlomi Eldar and Ruti Yuval) that revealed the disputed UAE pre-attack warning, Haaretz reported that on the evening of October 7, 2023 — hours after the attack began — Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told then-Mossad chief David Barnea that Hamas was willing to immediately release all the civilian hostages it had seized, with no conditions attached, and offered Doha's mediation. According to Haaretz, Barnea rebuffed the offer, saying: 'If they want to release the civilians, let them release them ... We are not prepared to speak with Hamas.' Al Thani then called then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to say Israel was 'not interested' in Qatar's proposal; Haaretz reported Blinken responded 'Let's wait,' said he would speak with Netanyahu personally, and suggested waiting three days. Blinken rejected the account on X on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, writing: 'For the record, this is false. Complete fiction.' The Prime Minister's Office did not directly address the hostage-offer claim in its response to the broader Haaretz investigation, which it has called an 'absolute lie' over the separate UAE-warning allegation now the subject of Netanyahu's libel suit against Haaretz.