Ex-Hostage Negotiator Tells CNN Best Way to Get Hostages Out of Gaza Is By Pressuring Qatar

CNN anchor Boris Sanchez on Thursday spoke to former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin about how best to rescue the hostages being held captive by Hamas and other Palestinian groups in Gaza.

Sanchez asked Baskin if “a larger ground incursion by the IDF would complicate the process of freeing the hostages?”

“I think it certainly would. Even if Israel has a large amount of intelligence information that I suspect that they do, the hostages are probably kept in this web of tunnels underneath Gaza, hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, and it’ll be very difficult to get to them. They’re certainly not all being kept together,” Baskin replied, adding:

And one of the big challenges that we have in the negotiations also right now is that we’re not sure that Hamas is in control and holding all the hostages because other groups from Gaza took hostages as well. Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, and even individuals are suspected of taking hostages.

So it’s not sure even when the Qatari government is talking to the Hamas leadership in Gaza, that the Hamas leadership in Gaza has control, or when the Egyptians are talking to the Hamas leadership in Gaza, are they talking to the military wing who are holding the hostages and maybe controlling all of them? This is a very complex negotiation and it’s very difficult to know that we’re talking to the right people.

“It doesn’t seem likely that Israel is going to hold off on striking Gaza. It doesn’t seem likely that at this point they’re going to give Hamas the fuel that it needs in order to essentially enable it to launch further attacks. Does it strike you that Israel might have to make a choice between protecting those hostages and its mission of eradicating Hamas?” Sanchez followed up.

“Yes, it’s a very big dilemma. And it’s a it’s an enormous decision for the government in the war cabinet to make,” Baskin replied, adding:

I want to say one thing that’s very important for the American audience to hear in particular and European audiences. Qatar is essentially a state that supports terrorism. It has funded Hamas with more than $1,000,000,000. The Hamas political leadership is in Doha, living in five star conditions and red carpets protected by the Qatari government.

It is time to pull out the big sticks vis-a-vis the Qatari government and to tell the Qatar government that if they don’t pressure Hamas to release the hostages, then Hamas will be told to leave Qatar. This is what we need to do. This is what the Hamas leadership needs to hear from Qatar. Qatar spent billions of dollars on the World Cup, they made Qatar Airlines. Qatar is buying up companies in Nasdaq and Silicon Valley. Qatar is a state that supports terrorism. And if it doesn’t comply with American demands to put pressure, real pressure on Hamas, then Qatar should be labeled as a state that supports terrorism and let them see how well their jets can land all over the world and how they can buy companies on Nasdaq or even use the SWIFT international banking system. It’s time to put the real pressure on because time is running out.

“A really important point I had not heard made before. Gershon Baskin, I very much appreciate your perspective,” Sanchez concluded.

Notably, Qatar also hosts the forward headquarters of U.S. Central Command at Al Udeid Air Base. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made headlines this week for having said he asked the “Qatari prime minister less than two weeks ago to tone down Al Jazeera’s rhetoric regarding the Gaza War,” as reported by Axios. Al Jazeera in Arabic is banned in many countries in the Middle East and sparked controversy for its war coverage including a widely debunked report claiming that images of Israeli babies murdered by Hamas gunmen had been generated by artificial intelligence.

Watch the full clip above via CNN.