Netanyahu 'killed any hope' of Gaza hostages release with strike on Doha, Qatari premier says

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Benjamin Netanyahu “killed any hope” for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip after Israel's attack this week on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar’s prime minister said Thursday in remarks that underscored wider anger among Gulf Arab countries over the strike.

Tuesday's attack on the territory of a U.S. ally killed at least six people and alarmed countries in the Middle East and beyond, risking upending ceasefire talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt that sought to free the Hamas-held hostages in Gaza.

“I was meeting one of the hostages' families the morning of the attack,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told CNN in an interview aired late Wednesday. “They are counting on this mediation. They have no other hope for that.”

“What Netanyahu has done, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” added Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Qatar's top diplomat.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzy Barhoum said Israel's attack constituted a “derailment of negotiations efforts” and showed that Netanyahu and his backers “refuse to reach a deal.”

Hamas says its senior leaders survived the Doha strike but that five lower-level members were killed. The militant group, which has sometimes only confirmed the assassination of its leaders months later, offered no immediate proof senior figures had survived.

Funerals for the five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer who were killed in the attack were held Thursday. Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended the service.

Qatar's diplomatic push

Sheikh Mohammed was expected to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting later Thursday, part of Qatari efforts following the strike. Qatar also said it was organizing an Arab-Islamic summit next week in Doha to discuss the attack.

The Security Council has expressed “deep concern” over the strike without mentioning Israel and emphasized “de-escalation.” It also conveyed its solidarity with Qatar and the “vital role” the country played in mediating peace efforts in recent years.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians continued to flee Gaza City ahead of Israel’s impending offensive there. The numbers have grown in recent days, though many have refused to leave, saying they no longer have the strength or money to relocate.

The operation is aimed at taking over the largest Palestinian city, 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.

Reflecting eroding support for Israel within the U.S. Democratic Party, a pair of U.S. senators accused Netanyahu and his government of ethnic cleansing in Gaza by using starvation as a weapon of war and systematically destroying homes in Gaza.

Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley said Thursday after a weeklong visit to the region in August that Israel was deliberately blocking the entry of food in order to displace Palestinians to the south of the strip — a precursor to relocating them to other countries.

Israel has denied there is starvation in Gaza, even after experts last month announced a famine in Gaza City. It says it has allowed in enough humanitarian aid and accuses Hamas of diverting it. U.N. agencies deny there is any systematic diversion and say Israel's restrictions and ongoing offensive make it difficult to deliver desperately needed food.

A warning from the UAE

Qatar has hosted Hamas' political leadership for years in Doha, in part over a request by the United States to encourage negotiations to end the war that started with Hamas’ assault on Israel nearly two years ago.

There was no immediate reaction to Sheikh Mohammed's remarks from Netanyahu, who 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.

“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 said Thursday that more “provocative and hostile rhetoric” from Israel undermines stability and “pushes the region towards extremely dangerous trajectories.”

The UAE's Foreign Ministry said an aggression against any of the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council — which includes Qatar — "constitutes an attack on the collective Gulf security framework.”

The UAE, which also blocked Israeli firms from participating in the Dubai Air Show in November, was part of the 2020 Abraham Accords, in which it and three other Arab nations forged ties with Israel.

Palestinians forced to live on streets

An estimated 1 million Palestinians — around half of Gaza’s overall population — live in and around Gaza City. Many tried to leave Wednesday as dozens of vehicles, motorbikes and donkey carts loaded with belongings lined the city's coastal road.

Amal Sobh, displaced from the northern town of Beit Lahia with 30 relatives — including 13 orphaned children — said they were stranded after their vehicle broke down. One of her boys came down with a fever, and the only food they had was a bread that a passerby gave them, she told The Associated Press.

In overcrowded 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. 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,” she said. "No water, no food, no bathrooms.”

Teenager shot in the occupied West Bank

A 14-year-old boy was in a hospital in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday after Israeli troops shot him the day before, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and the hospital’s director.

Oday 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. For the two other teens, 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 elaborating.

The military said two soldiers were “slightly injured” and when their armored vehicle was struck by an explosive device near the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem. The army said troops were encircling the city and setting up roadblocks. Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the explosion.

Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 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.

___