Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday appeared to threaten more airstrikes on Qatar despite the widespread international criticism of the Israeli attack on the US-allied nation.
“You either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu said, referring to Hamas political leaders based in Qatar.
Hamas has said that the Israeli airstrikes killed five of its lower-level members and one Qatari security officer, but didn’t kill the senior officials whom Israel attempted to target. Israeli media reported on Wednesday that Israeli officials are now doubting that the strikes killed the intended targets.
Qatar strongly condemned Netanyahu’s comments and pointed to the fact that it hosts a Hamas office to facilitate negotiations between the Palestinian group and Israel. The Hamas office opened in Qatar in 2012 at the request of the US, according to Qatari officials. Israel also facilitated Qatari payments to Hamas in Gaza for years, and ensured they continued when Doha was considering cutting them off.
“Netanyahu is fully aware that the hosting of the Hamas office took place within the framework of Qatar’s mediation efforts requested by the United States and Israel,” the Qatari Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“He is also fully aware of the office’s role in facilitating numerous exchanges and ceasefires, which have been widely acknowledged and appreciated by the international community and have brought relief to Palestinian civilians and Israeli hostages in desperate need of basic humanitarian relief from the ruthlessness that has ensued since October 7th,” the ministry added.
Netanyahu compared the attacks on Doha with the US targeting of al-Qaeda following the September 11 attacks, which Qatar rejected. “The false comparison to the pursuit of al-Qaeda after the terrorist attacks is a new, miserable justification for its treacherous practices,” the ministry said. “There was no international mediation involving an al-Qaeda negotiating delegation, with which the United States could engage with international support, to bring peace to the region at the time.”
President Trump has claimed that he was “very unhappy” about the Israeli strikes on Qatar, which hosts 10,000 US troops and is a major non-NATO ally. But Israeli media reports said the US gave Israel the green light for the attack.
