DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “killed any hope” of releasing hostages still held in the Gaza Strip after Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar’s prime minister said ahead of appearing at the United Nations on Thursday.
The comments from Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani underscored the wider anger among Gulf Arab countries over Tuesday's strike that killed at least six people.
“I was meeting one of the hostages' families the morning of the attack,” Sheikh
Mohammed told CNN in an interview aired late Wednesday. “They are counting on this (ceasefire) mediation. They have no other hope for that.”
Sheikh Mohammed added: “I think that what Netanyahu has done (Tuesday), he just killed any hope for those hostages.”
The remarks came as thousands of Palestinians continued to flee Gaza City ahead of Israel's impending offensive there. The numbers leaving the city have grown in recent days, though many have refused because they say they no longer have the strength or money to relocate.
The operation is aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, which is already devastated from earlier raids and experiencing famine. The offensive, in its early stages, has deepened Israel’s already unprecedented global isolation, which intensified further this week following the strike on Qatar.
Sheikh Mohammed was expected to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting later Thursday, part of a diplomatic push by Qatar after the strike. Qatar also said it was organizing an Arab-Islamic summit next week in Doha to discuss the attack.
The attack on the territory of a U.S. ally alarmed countries in the Mideast and beyond and risked upending talks aimed at ending the war and freeing hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Hamas said Tuesday that its senior leaders survived the strike but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya — Hamas’ top negotiator — as well as three bodyguards and the head of al-Hayya’s office.
Hamas, which has sometimes only confirmed the assassination of its leaders months later, offered no immediate proof that al-Hayya and other senior figures had survived.
Qatar on Thursday held a funeral for the five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer who were killed in the attack. Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended the service.
Qatar and Egypt, whose foreign minister traveled to Doha on Thursday, have been key mediators in trying to halt the war in Gaza. Qatar has hosted Hamas' political leadership for years in Doha, in part over a request by the U.S. to encourage negotiations.
There was no immediate reaction to Sheikh Mohammed's remarks from Netanyahu, whose government has engaged in wars across the region since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
However, Netanyahu has continued to defend the strikes and threatened further action against Qatar a day after U.S. President Donald Trump had sought to ease tensions between the U.S. allies, including by assuring the Gulf nation that there would be no more such strikes on its soil.
“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice,” Netanyahu said. “Because if you don’t, we will.”
The United Arab Emirates meanwhile blocked Israeli firms from participating in the Dubai Air Show in November, Israeli media reported. The Israeli Defense Ministry told The Associated Press on Thursday that it had received “the notification from the exhibition organizers to the industries.”
The air show’s organizers and authorities in the Emirates did not respond to requests for comment. However, the move would carry significant diplomatic importance, as the UAE was the driving force behind the 2020 Abraham Accords, in which it and three other Arab nations forged ties with Israel.
An estimated 1 million Palestinians — around half of Gaza’s overall population — live in and around Gaza City. On Wednesday, dozens of vehicles, motorbikes and donkey carts loaded with belongings lined the city's coastal road as they tried to leave.
Amal Sobh, displaced from the northern town of Beit Lahia with 30 relatives said the three-wheel vehicle carrying their belongings broke down and they had no fuel, leaving the family stranded.
After one of her boys came down with a fever, the only food they were able to get was bread that a passerby gave to them. She didn't have money to buy medicine.
“I have 13 orphans. The one who is in my lap, his temperature is high like fire,” she told The Associated Press.
Meanwhile in Muwasi, an area at the southern end of the strip where Israel has encouraged people to move, displaced Palestinians from northern Gaza struggled to find shelter due to overcrowding and lack of adequate resources. Many have been forced to live on the streets.
Atwah Awad said aid has not reached her or her family.
"I slept in the street tonight. Who would accept that I sleep in the street? No water, no food, no bathrooms.”
A 14-year-old boy was in a hospital’s intensive care unit in Jenin on Thursday after Israeli troops shot him in the West Bank the day before, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and the hospital’s director.
Oday Nasrallah was in stable condition after being shot in the abdomen, according to hospital director Dr. Wissam Bakr.
Nasrallah was the third 14-year-old boy shot by Israeli troops in the last week, according to reports from the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent. The other two boys died from their wounds.
The military did not immediately comment on the latest shooting. After the two 14-year-olds were killed, it said troops had fired at individuals who had entered an area under a closure order. It said they posed a threat to its forces, without specifying the nature of the threat or providing evidence.
The military said one of its armored vehicle was struck by an explosive device in the area of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem. Israeli media reported that two soldiers were slightly wounded. The army said troops were encircling the city and setting up roadblocks. Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel in 2023, abducting 251 people and killing some 1,200, mostly civilians. Forty-eight hostages are still held inside Gaza, around 20 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not say how many were civilians or combatants but says women and children make up around half the dead.
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Hana reported from Wadi Gaza, Gaza Strip, and Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, Jalal Bwaitel in Ramallah, West Bank, Julia Frankel in Jerusalem and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
