Diplomacy in ruins after Israel hits Hamas leaders in Qatar

Almost just a year ago, I interviewed the Hamas leader and the chief negotiating Khalil Al-Haya in Doha. I met him in a house not far from the building, which Israel attacked on Tuesday afternoon.

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, Al-Haya has been the main negotiating Hamas, sending and receiving messages to Israelis and Americans through Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries.

At times when the fire was thought to have been stopped, Al-Haya, along with men, who were also directed this afternoon, were only a short distance from Israeli and American delegations. When they were attacked, Al-Haya and the other Hamas top leaders discussed the latest American diplomatic proposals to end the Gaza war and the release of other Israeli hostages.

Israel’s heart declaration of what he did immediately, nourishes speculation on social media that the most US proposals are just rough to get Hamas’s management in a place where they can be directed.

On October 3 last year, when Halil Al-Haya entered the place for our meeting in a modest low-rise villa, I was surprised that he had so little security. We had to give up our phones, and several bodyguards came with him to the House.

Outside ordinary clothes, Catari, police were smoking in SUV. That was all. One hundred bodyguards could not stop an air strike, but Al-Haya and his men were calm and confident.

The point was that Qatar had to be safe and they felt safe enough to move relatively openly.

For several months earlier, on July 31, 2024, Israel killed Ismail Hannie, Hamas’s political leader in Tehran, where he attended the assumption of President Masud Petshian.

With the war in Gaza she was raging, I wondered if it could be dangerous to sit in the same room as Halil Al-Haya. But like him, I thought Qatar was out of bounds.

In the last few decades, Qatar has tried to carve like Switzerland in the Middle East, a place where even enemies can make deals.

The Americans negotiated with Afghan Taliban in Doha. And almost two years after the attacks on October 7, 2023, Qatar was the center of diplomatic efforts to negotiate for termination and perhaps even the end of the war.

The peaceful effort led by President Trump’s envoy Steve Vikoffunched badly. But now they are in ruins. According to a senior Western diplomat, “no diplomacy”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis that their enemies would never be able to sleep easily and pay the price to order attacks on October 7th.

The Israeli offensive in Gaza is collecting a pace. A few hours before the attack on Doha, the Israeli military, IDF, told all Palestinians in the city of Gaza to leave and move south. It is believed that something like a million civilians can be affected.

In his television comments, Netanyahu told the Palestinians in Gaza: “Do not be derailed by these murderers. Get up for your rights and your future. Make peace with us. Accept President Trump’s proposal. Don’t worry, you can do it, we can do it.

If the Palestinians in Gaza manage to hear his words, they will ring very hollow. Israel has destroyed the homes of hundreds of thousands of them, as well as hospitals, universities and schools.

As Gaza is already hungry, hunger in the city of Gaza and a humanitarian disaster through the territory, the forced movement of many more people will only increase Israel’s deadly pressure on civilians.

Israel has already killed over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the bigger part of whom are civilians. Netanyahu himself was faced with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court of Holiday Crime, and Israel is investigated by the International Genocide Court.

The attack in Doha is a sign that Netanyahu and his government will pressed as hard as they can on all fronts, not just gas. They are confident that with US support, their military can impose their will.

The Doha attack earned a rare reproach from the White House. Qatar is a valuable ally that hosts a huge US military base and is a major investor in the United States.

But it seems that Netanyahu estimates that Donald Trump, the only leader who feels he has to listen, will settle for the diplomatic equivalent of rap over the bones.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza continues. And since the planned recognition of Palestinian Independence in the UN later this month from the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia and other Western countries is approached, the approaches of the ultra -nationalist cabinet of Netanyahu will hit the calls to respond with the annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory of the Jewish.