Qatar yesterday awoke still digging through the rubble of an Israeli attack the previous day on Hamas’ political leaders who had gathered in the capital of the energy-rich Middle East country to consider a US proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar’s local media hewed tightly to government statements issued after Tuesday’s attack, which killed at least six people in a Doha neighborhood that is home to foreign embassies and schools.
US President Donald Trump said he was “very unhappy about every aspect” of the Israeli strike.
Photo: AFP
“I’m not thrilled about it,” Trump said as he arrived at a Washington restaurant on Tuesday. “It’s not a good situation, but I will say this: We want the hostages back, but we’re not thrilled about the way it went down today.”
The attack on the territory of a US ally drew condemnation from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the EU, and risks derailing Gaza ceasefire talks and Trump’s push to achieve a negotiated end to the nearly two-year-old conflict and freeing hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas on Tuesday said in a statement that its top leaders survived the strike, but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya — Hamas’ leader for Gaza and its top negotiator — as well as three bodyguards and the head of al-Hayya’s office.
While Israel defended the attacks as being justified, Qatar said that Israel was treacherous and engaged in “state terrorism.”
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the airstrikes threatened to derail the peace talks Qatar has been mediating between Hamas and Israel.
Al-Jazeera, the satellite news network funded by Qatar’s government, described the attack in its headlines as a “brutal aggression.”
Trump said he considered hitting Hamas was a worthy goal, but he felt badly that the attack took place in the Gulf Arab state, which is a major non-NATO ally of Washington and where the Palestinian Islamist group has long had its political base.
Qatar is a security partner of the US and host to al-Udeid Air Base, the largest US military facility in the Middle East. It has acted as a mediator alongside Egypt in talks between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza, which appears to be increasingly elusive.
Al Thani said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy used weapons that were not detected by radar.”
He did not elaborate, but the statement suggests that Israeli fighter jets could have launched “stand-off” missiles at a distance to strike the site without actually entering Qatari airspace — possible over the Persian Gulf.
The US said it warned Qatar before the strike, but Doha disputes that, with Al Thani saying that “the Americans sent a message 10 minutes after the attacks took place, saying they were informed that there was going to be a missile attack on the state of Qatar.”
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon yesterday told an Israeli radio station that Israel does not “always act in the interests” of the US.
“We are coordinated, they give us incredible support, we appreciate that, but sometimes we make decisions and inform the United States,” he said, adding that the attack was not against Qatar, but against Hamas.
Additional reporting by AFP
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