Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich accused Qatar on Thursday of thwarting Israel’s efforts to destroy Hamas, alleging that the Gulf state was “cooperating” with the Palestinian terror group to keep hostages it is holding as a bargaining chip to halt the fighting and thereby preserve Hamas’s rule in the Gaza Strip.

“Qatar encourages terrorism, finances terrorism, pushes terror and is playing a double game,” said Smotrich at a conference of the Israel Defense and Security Forum in Ashkelon, stepping up criticism he voiced in a tweet on Wednesday evening after Doha’s foreign ministry said it was appalled at a report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had badmouthed the Gulf state.

“Qatar is the biggest obstacle for returning the hostages. We could get all 136 hostages tomorrow if Qatar would give Hamas an ultimatum to return all the hostages, and if the West would give Qatar an ultimatum to do that,” the far-right politician charged.

Doha, which is a leading patron of Hamas and hosts its leaders, played a key role in negotiating the release of over 100 hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners in November, and is a key mediator in current talks aimed at releasing the remaining abductees and negotiating a lengthy pause in fighting.

“Qatar has a clear interest in preserving Hamas, its survival and its rule in Gaza and outside of it after the war. And it is doing everything to thwart our efforts, of the State of Israel, to totally destroy the military and governance capabilities of Hamas,” Smotrich said.

The Religious Zionism party head said that the US has substantial leverage over Qatar and could pressure it to force Hamas to release the hostages, but was not doing so because “there are people with deep financial interests linked with Qatar.”

“This is huge hypocrisy, and Israel needs to remove the mask from this hypocrisy,” he added.

In his Wednesday night post on X, Smotrich said Doha was “Hamas’s patron and is largely responsible for the massacre of Israeli citizens Hamas committed [on October 7]. The West’s treatment of it is hypocritical and based on improper financial interests. The West can and should employ far stronger leverage and bring about the release of the hostages immediately.

“One thing is certain: Qatar won’t be involved in any way in managing Gaza the day after the war.”

Hamas denounced Smotrich’s “targeting of the brotherly State of Qatar,” asserting Thursday that the Gulf monarchy had “played an active political role to stop the aggression on our people and advance” exchange deals.

Smotrich’s words reflect Israel’s position, which is to obstruct a possible agreement on the exchange, Hamas senior adviser Taher Nunu added in his statement.

The developments came after Qatar’s foreign ministry on Wednesday chastised Netanyahu for saying that it was “problematic” that Doha was acting as the mediator between Israel and Hamas.

In a recording aired Tuesday by Israeli television, Netanyahu appeared to express disappointment with the United States for not applying more pressure on the Gulf state.

“I think you need to speak to the hearts of the international community to apply pressure on those who can apply pressure,” Netanyahu was heard telling the families of hostages in the leaked recording published Tuesday by Channel 12 news.

He said Qatar should be the first address, even as he noted that he has never thanked Doha publicly for its role.

“Qatar, from my point of view, is no different in essence than the United Nations… and the Red Cross, [Qatar] is even more problematic,” he said, adding, however, that he’s willing to speak to anyone “that would help me get them home.”

“I have no illusions about them. They have leverage [over Hamas]… Because [Qatar] funds them.”

Netanyahu said he got “very angry recently with the Americans” for renewing a deal to extend US military presence at a base in Qatar for another 10 years.

In response, Majed Al Ansari, the spokesperson for Qatar’s foreign ministry, said that Doha was “appalled” by the remarks, adding that if confirmed, they “are irresponsible and destructive to the efforts to save innocent lives, but are not surprising.”

“If the reported remarks are found to be true, the Israeli PM would only be obstructing and undermining the mediation process, for reasons that appear to serve his political career instead of prioritizing saving innocent lives, including Israeli hostages,” he wrote.

“Instead of concerning himself with Qatar’s strategic relations with the United States, we hope Netanyahu decides to operate in good faith and concentrate on the release of the hostages.”

Doha and Washington have been seeking to broker a new hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas, with reports in recent days saying the sides have moved closer together. Israeli officials, however, on Wednesday denied the reports of progress in the talks, and reports said Hamas had toughened its stance and rejected a reported Israeli offer.

Netanyahu also said in the published recording that Qatar has given Israel commitments to ensure that medications reach the hostages, as agreed on in a celebrated but as-yet incomplete deal brokered by Doha and Paris last week to deliver much-needed medicines to the hostages.

The deal also included the provision of medical supplies, food and other humanitarian aid for Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu previously admitted that the Qatari commitment to deliver medicine to hostages was the only way Israel had to verify their delivery. “We’ll know in a few days, maybe before,” Netanyahu told the families in the meeting.

Netanyahu’s military secretary, Brig. Gen. Avi Gil, told the families Israel was “supposed to receive via the Qataris a kind of confirmation… that [the hostages] received the medications.”

Qatar and Washington were instrumental in negotiating a weeklong truce in November that led to the release of 105 hostages. In return, Israel agreed to free around 240 Palestinian security prisoners and to an increase in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

It is believed that 132 hostages of the 253 abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza. The IDF has confirmed the deaths of 28 of those still held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza. The bodies of 11 hostages, including three mistakenly killed by the military, have been recovered so far from the Strip.

Hamas has also been holding two Israeli civilians, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who are both thought to be alive after entering the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively, as well as the bodies of fallen IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin since 2014.