Qatar Plans Coordinated Regional Reaction to Israeli Assault on Doha

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Key Points

Qatar PM says there will be a response after five Hamas members and a Qatari security official were killed.
Gulf leaders showed solidarity with Qatar as summit plans take shape.
Benjamin Netanyahu vowed more action and warned nations hosting Hamas negotiators.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani says there will be a response that is under discussion with regional partners to Israel’s attack on Doha.

Plans are underway for a summit to be held in Doha in the near future regarding these discussions, he told CNN, without providing a specific date.

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack in the Qatari capital on Tuesday, escalating its military action in the Middle East in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that was not in Israel’s interests.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the strike and threatened further action against Qatar a day after US President Donald Trump had sought to ease tensions between the allies, including by assuring the Gulf country that there would be no more such strikes on its soil.

“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice,” Netanyahu said.

“Because if you don’t, we will.”

How and why did Israel strike Qatar?

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the attack, said about 10 planes participated in the mission and dropped about 10 missiles.

Netanyahu said he had made the decision to carry out the strike the day before.

The widely condemned Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating in negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

Israeli ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter said after the operation that if the airstrike failed to kill Hamas leaders, it would succeed next time.

“If we didn’t get them this time, we’ll get them the next time,” Leiter told Fox News.

Hamas said five of its members were killed in the Doha attack, including the son of its exiled Gaza Strip chief and top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.

It said its top leaders survived.

Attack draws global condemnation

The attack sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity between Arab countries.

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in Qatar on Wednesday, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein is also expected to visit Qatar, while Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to arrive in Doha on Thursday, an official with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The visits were a show of regional solidarity with Qatar following the Israeli strikes, the official said.

Smoke rises from the site of an airstrike at a distance, with a city visible in the foreground.

Qatar has vowed to respond to the Israeli attack on Doha along with its regional partners. Source: AAP / AP

The European Commission will propose sanctioning ultranationalist Israeli ministers and the suspension of trade-related measures in a European Union agreement with Israel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.

The Doha airstrike followed an Israeli warning to Palestinians to leave Gaza City, an area once home to about a million people, as it tries to destroy what is left of Hamas.

Residents there expressed alarm that the Doha strike might destroy chances for a ceasefire.

Families, some carrying their belongings on vehicles, donkey carts and rickshaws, continued to stream out of Gaza City along the coastal road in anticipation of a major Israeli offensive.

Hamas reiterated on Saturday it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw its forces from the Strip.

Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would release all the hostages at once and have Hamas surrender.