WASHINGTON — Qatar’s prime minister said Friday that the Persian Gulf kingdom, which hosts Hamas’ political leadership, is “doing our best” to convince the terrorist group to free hostages held in Gaza — as Israel’s military revealed its own desperate hunt for abductees in a series of daring commando operations.
“We always hope, but in order to get those hostages back, I think that the progress will be determined in the next few days, hopefully, and we will see there will be a positive outcome,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said at a press conference in Doha alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“But we are doing our best, our partners are doing their best in order to get them released safely,” the prime minister added.
The Israel Defense Forces, meanwhile, confirmed for the first time Friday that it had conducted raids inside Hamas-ruled Gaza in an attempt to find the estimated 150 hostages — including some Americans — who were hauled back to the Palestinian territory Oct. 7 amid a massacre of at least 1,300 people, including 27 US citizens, in communities across southern Israel.
A spokesman for Hamas said Monday that the group was prepared to murder the hostages on camera in response to ongoing Israeli airstrikes.
The White House has confirmed that 14 Americans are missing and some of those are among the hostages, though it has not given an exact number.
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“During the last day, the IDF forces carried out local raids in the territory of the Gaza Strip to complete the effort to cleanse the area of terrorists and weapons. In these operations, an effort was also made to locate missing people,” the Israeli military tweeted at noon ET Friday.
“Infantry and armored forces searched and gathered in the area for findings that may help in the effort to locate the missing and thwarted terrorist infrastructure and terrorist cells found in the area.”
In Qatar, al Thani commented on the hostages in English, but spoke in Arabic to discuss his country’s administration of $6 billion in Iranian money that President Biden unfroze as part of a prisoner trade accomplished last month.
Members of Congress, including prominent Democrats, are calling on those funds to be refrozen following reports of Iran’s involvement in the Hamas attacks.
The Qatari leader said, according to translations, that the $6 billion would be used in accordance with the US-Iran deal, which allowed it to be spend on food and medicine — potentially contradicting Biden administration claims to Congress that Qatar would not dispense the money.