Qatar is reportedly pressurising Hamas to return the bodies of missing Israeli soldiers, including that of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin who is believed to have been killed in action in Gaza in the 2014 war, according to the activist rabbi Shmuley Boteach quoted in Forbes magazine.

Last week the gulf state was reported by Haaretz to be seeking a meeting between its leaders visiting the US this week for the UN Assembly and American Jewish organisations.

But the reports prompted a protest campaign from Rabbi Boteach, who denounced the idea because of Qatar’s links with Hamas.

Rabbi Boteach told Forbes that he had been “warned our advertising campaign against Hamas might blow up in our faces because Hamas would be imminently releasing the bodies of Israeli soldiers under Qatari pressure ”.

Qatar itself has come under unprecedented diplomatic pressure in recent months from within the Arab world over allegations of funding Islamist terrorism. Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates imposed a blockade against it in June.