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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has commemorated the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attack on the U.S. by vowing more aggression against Qatar as condemnation of Israeli forces’ strike on Doha grows this week.
In a filmed statement in English, Netanyahu likened the Doha attack to the U.S.’s 2011 assassination of Osama bin Laden — even though the Hamas political officials Israel targeted in the strike were reportedly unscathed. He said that September 11 is akin to Israel’s October 7, 2023, attack.
Netanyahu accused Qatar of giving “safe haven” to Hamas officials. “It harbors terrorists. It finances Hamas. It gives its terrorist chieftains sumptuous villas. It gives them everything. So we did exactly what America did when it went after Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan, and after they went and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan,” he said.
Other countries should “applaud Israel,” just as they applauded the U.S. for carrying out the same principles, Netanyahu said. (Critics, at the time, did indeed question the legality of the U.S.’s operation in Pakistan, and many have extensively condemned the U.S.’s actions in Afghanistan.)
Qatar has indeed given money to Hamas since 2018 — under a deal negotiated with and approved by Israel. Reports have documented, in fact, that Netanyahu actively encouraged the continuation of these payments. Some analysts have said that Netanyahu did so in order to ensure that Palestinian governance remained split between Gaza and the occupied West Bank, fueling destabilization that could be exploited by Israel.
Netanyahu also reportedly once said that Israel was “benefiting” from the September 11 attack, and that it “swung American public opinion in our favor.”
“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu concluded, effectively threatening more strikes on Qatar and other states.
Qatar shot back at Netanyahu’s statement, saying that he described “explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty.”
“Netanyahu is fully aware that the hosting of the Hamas office took place within the framework of Qatar’s mediation efforts requested by the United States and Israel,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said. “The negotiations were always held in an official and transparent manner, with international support and in the presence of U.S. and Israeli delegations. Netanyahu’s insinuation that Qatar secretly harbored the Hamas delegation is a desperate attempt to justify a crime condemned by the entire world.”
Netanyahu’s comments come amid growing international condemnation of Israel’s strike on Doha, which killed six people in the capital city. It was one of four Middle East countries targeted by Israel in just 24 hours.
In a statement on Thursday, the UN Security Council, including the U.S., published a statement condemning the strike.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar, in line with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations,” the group said. “Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority.”
Some reports have suggested that U.S. President Donald Trump is upset with Israel over the strike on one of its most important military allies in the region — but the U.S. has not pledged any action to mete out consequences against Israel.
Meanwhile, even as Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani pledges to ensure Israel is “brought to justice,” the nation is giving Israel exactly what it wants: an end to the current ceasefire talks. Hamas officials have said that the latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks have been totally halted. Al-Thani told CNN on Wednesday that the strike, reportedly aimed at Hamas’s negotiation team, has “killed any hope” for a deal.
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