‘Complete fiction,’ Blinken says of ‘Haaretz’ report on Oct. 7 hostage offer

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has denied a Haaretz report claiming he rejected an immediate offer from Hamas to release Israeli civilian hostages hours after the October 7 attack. Blinken stated on social media, "For the record, this is false. Complete fiction." The Haaretz article, based on a forthcoming book, alleged that Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani conveyed Hamas's willingness to release hostages to Blinken, who reportedly preferred to wait. The article also claimed the UAE warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the attacks, a claim the Prime Minister's Office also denied as "false." Likud attributed the article's primary source to Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah leader, and called for a criminal investigation into the authors for "attempting to disrupt the elections with foreign entities."