Qatar Asking Israel Not to Assassinate Hamas Leaders on Its Soil Now that Deal Talks Are Over

Photo Credit: Ahmad Thamer Al Kuwari / Flickr

Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, November 3, 2020.

Qatar has asked Israel to commit that it would not eliminate senior Hamas leaders on its soil, Kan11 News reported Sunday night. There may be a connection between Qatar’s request and the Qatari decision to cease mediation between Hamas and Israel and expel the Hamas leadership from Qatari territory.

The request to Israel was conveyed through the same go-betweens Qatar used during the negotiation attempts. The last time Qatar requested Israel not to kill its Hamas guests followed the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in the summer, which was attributed to Israel.

CNN, citing a diplomat familiar with the decision, reported that Qatari officials have also decided to close Hamas’s political office in Doha, the Qatari capital. According to the CNN source, Qatar decided “about a week ago to suspend the office because the parties aren’t negotiating in good faith. ⁠The office won’t be operational so Hamas may leave. The office could open again if talks restart.”

Qatar announced on Saturday that it had suspended its role as a mediator in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, citing what officials described as a lack of commitment from both parties to reach a resolution. Majed Al-Ansari, a spokesman for Qatar’s foreign ministry, announced, “The State of Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round.”

Relations between the State of Israel and Qatar have had their ups and downs. Until 2009, the two countries maintained economic relations, but after Operation Cast Lead, also known as the First Gaza War (Dec 27, 2008 – Jan 18, 2009), Qatar severed its relations with Israel in protest. Relations were officially terminated in 2011 when Israel decided to close its offices in Qatar due to its anti-Israeli stances and support for Hamas.

QATAR LYING THROUGH ITS TEETH

Yoni Ben-Menachem, an Israeli journalist and senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, wrote on Sunday in Epoch that Israeli security sources believe Qatar’s announcement was part of the “Trump effect.” Qatar is preparing for the president-elect’s entry into the White House and, as usual, is misleading the world, trying to present itself as helping efforts to free the Israeli hostages and cooperating with US efforts, in light of the harsh criticism it has received from Israel.

Ben-Menachem suggested Qatar was presenting a false representation that it is an objective mediator, that Israel and Hamas are not serious, and that it is freezing its mediation in order to put pressure on both sides to be serious in the negotiations. When that happens, Qatar claims, it will resume mediation. In doing so, it is trying to please the Biden and Trump administrations and to convey that it supposedly cares for the lives of the hostages and the efforts to achieve a ceasefire. In this way, Qatar is trying to hold the stick at both ends without actually harming Hamas.

Ben-Menachem noted that Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, has excellent relations with President-elect Donald Trump, and he may simply wait for Trump to ask him to resume the mediation efforts. He pointed out that Qatar left room for Hamas leaders to remain in Doha, and the reports regarding the expulsion of senior Hamas officials are inaccurate. Hamas, for its part, denies that the movement’s senior leaders will be expelled from Doha.

A senior Hamas official told the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat Saturday night that the terror group had not received any request from Qatar to leave Doha, contrary to all media reports to that effect. However, Hamas was informed that the Americans had submitted such a request. The Hamas official added that “this has happened several times in the past, and it seems that this is part of American efforts to force the movement to give up in the negotiations on the ceasefire agreement that is stalled in the Gaza Strip.”

In practice, Ben-Menachem concluded, no Qatari official has asked Hamas leaders to close their offices and leave Qatar. Hamas sources also said that Qatari security forces continue to provide security for senior Hamas officials, fearing that they will be eliminated by the Mossad.