Qatar denounces Israel before major summit on Israel's attack in Doha
targeting Hamas leaders
[September 15, 2025]
By JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar's prime minister denounced
Israel on Sunday as foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim nations met
to discuss a possible unified response to Israel's attack on Doha
targeting the leadership of the militant group Hamas.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar's
foreign minister, made the comments before a meeting Monday of leaders
from those nations.
Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar remained committed to working with Egypt and
the United States to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that has
devastated the Gaza Strip after Hamas' attack on Israel nearly two years
ago. However, he said that the Israeli strike that killed six people —
five members of Hamas and a local Qatari security force member —
represented “an attack on the principle of mediation itself.”
“This attack can only be described as state terrorism, an approach
pursued by the current extremist Israeli government, which flouts
international law,” the minister said. “The reckless and treacherous
Israeli aggression was committed while the state of Qatar was hosting
official and public negotiations, with the knowledge of the Israeli side
itself, and with the aim of achieving a ceasefire in Gaza.”
Sheikh Mohammed stressed the moment had come for consequences to
Israel's attacks in the wider Middle East.
“It is time for the international community to stop applying double
standards and punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed,” Sheikh
Mohammed said in footage later released by Qatar's government from the
closed-door meeting.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit separately criticized
Israel and warned that “silence in the face of a crime ... paves the way
for more crimes.”
There was no immediate response from Israel, which is hosting U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio this weekend.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night again
defended the strike.
“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people
in Gaza,” he posted on X. “They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order
to endlessly drag out the war. Getting rid of them would rid the main
obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”
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Damage is seen after an Israeli strike targeted a compound that
hosted Hamas' political leadership in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, Sept.
10, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)
Hamas official Bassem Naim said in a statement that the organization
hopes that the summit on Monday will produce “a unified and decisive
Arab–Islamic stance” on the war.
Qatar, an energy-rich nation on the Arabian Peninsula that hosted
the 2022 World Cup, long has served as an intermediary in conflicts.
For years, it has hosted Hamas' political leadership at the request
of the U.S., providing a channel for Israel to negotiate with the
militant group that has controlled Gaza for years.
But as the Israel-Hamas war has raged on, Qatar increasingly has
been criticized by hard-liners within Netanyahu's government.
Netanyahu himself has vowed to strike all those who organized the
Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023, and in the time since the attack
in Qatar, he has doubled down on saying Qatar remains a possible
target if Hamas leaders are there.
Netanyahu faces increasing pressure from the Israeli public over
the fate of the remaining hostages held in Gaza. There are still 48
hostages remaining in Gaza, of whom 20 are believed by Israel to
still be alive. Israel's offensives in Gaza has killed more than
64,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not
say how many were civilians or combatants. It says around half of
those killed were women and children.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into
southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, and abducting 251.
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Sally Abou Aljoud in Beirut, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv,
Israel, contributed to this report.
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