Palestinians woke on Feb. 18 to an unusual news report posted on an Israeli website, alleging that Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of Hamas’ Gaza government, had secretly sent a message to his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, about ending the military escalation following Israel’s recent bombardment of a number of targets in Gaza.

It was further alleged that the message was passed in a phone conversation between Ghazi Hamad, undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza, and an Israeli mediator, Gershon Baskin. The conversation was said to have included a request to wind down Israeli military operations and supposedly took place in Haniyeh’s presence, in his office, with the message subsequently being relayed to Gil Sheffer, Netanyahu’s bureau chief.

Channel of communication

Al-Monitor published an article by Baskin in October 2013 in which he talked about serving as a conduit between Hamas and Israel on numerous occasions as a result of his close relations with senior Israeli government officials. Haniyeh’s office, through its spokesman, Taher al-Nono, vehemently denies sending a message to Netanyahu, describing the allegations as false, baseless and fabricated by the Israelis. Nono further accused Israel of waging psychological warfare against the Palestinian population of Gaza.