In the complex tapestry of Middle Eastern diplomacy, Qatar emerges as a paradox.
On the one hand, it positions itself as a mediator and peacemaker, instrumental in negotiating high-profile hostage releases and actively participating in regional discussions, a role that has placed it in the international spotlight in the aftermath of the Hamas led October 7 attack.
This role, as articulated by senior Qatari officials during my visit, reveals a nation striving for a larger purpose on the world stage. Their efforts, they assert, are in alignment with the broader objectives of global powers like the US and Israel, aimed at fostering stability in a tumultuous region.
Yet, there’s a palpable undercurrent of skepticism about Qatar’s true intentions. Their financial support to Gaza, often labeled as aid to Hamas, as well their policy of allowing that group’s top leaders to reside in their country, is a focal point of contention.
Qatari officials contend that these actions are not unilateral, but responses to requests from Israeli and US governments, aimed at stabilizing the region and averting humanitarian crises. They argue that their unique position enables them to mediate complex issues effectively, including the Israel-Hamas dynamics. Despite these explanations, the arrangement continues to spark debates and suspicions in Israel and beyond.
As an Israeli journalist delving into the depths of Qatar’s foreign policy and regional actions, I find myself navigating a narrative that’s both enlightening and elusive.
Last week, I conducted more than 15 hours of interviews and off-the-record briefings with the most senior Qatari government officials, who asked to remain anonymous. They were eager to share the complex history and current situation of their relationship with Israel for the past several decades, and specifically the vital role they have played in the past six months. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject, the officials have asked to remain anonymous.
These visits and meetings are exclusive to The Jerusalem Post. The discussions in Doha paint a picture of a nation trying to balance its global aspirations with regional realities, all while walking a tightrope of diplomatic and political complexities. The Qatari story, as it unfolds, is a reminder of the intricate and often opaque nature of international relations in the Middle East, where every action and intention is closely scrutinized and often met with a blend of hope and suspicion.
AT THE HEART of the interviews I held in Qatar was the Gulf nation’s perceived support for Hamas as well as its efforts on behalf of the 253 people, many of them Israelis, seized as hostages in the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, many of whom are still being held in Gaza.
The officials were quick to point out that they were put in this complex position vis-a-vis Hamas at the specific request of the United States and Israel, a country with whom it has an open dialogue even though it does not have formal diplomatic relations.
When I asked a senior Qatari official about “the Israeli public perceptions that Qatar hosts Hamas in Doha and sends suitcases of cash to Gaza,” he pushed back.
These officials underscored that the humanitarian aid and financial support it has provided to the devastated coastal Israeli enclave, commonly misinterpreted, have in fact been actions taken at the request of the Israeli and US governments. This aid was targeted specifically at the poorest families in Gaza, with Qatar meticulously transferring funds to recipients listed by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
Further, the hosting of Hamas leaders in Doha, a contentious issue, was disclosed as being a strategic decision also made at the request of Washington.
According to the Qataris, this move was aimed at fostering dialogue and oversight rather than supporting the group’s ideologies and actions.
“The Israeli and US governments are those who have asked us to prevent a humanitarian crisis and financially support Gazan citizens, as well as employees of the Palestinian Authority, to maintain a sense of stability in the region,” prior to the Israel-Hamas war, the senior Qatari official revealed.
The Americans and Israelis “were also the ones who asked us to let Hamas leaders stay in Doha, as they would rather have them in Doha than in Tehran or Beirut.”
It was Qatar’s global resumé of negotiating hostage deals and this relationship with Hamas that allowed Doha to have such a prominent role as a mediator in the hostage deals crisis, officials said, by putting together a potential deal almost immediately.
“We approached Israel very soon after October 7 since we were able to agree with Hamas about the release of all civilian hostages,” a senior source close to the Qatari government revealed to the Post last week as he broke his daily Ramadan fast outside of Doha.
Israel did not respond so quickly, the source explained.
“We were only answered by Israel on October 16,” he said, stating that Israel was determined to enter Gaza to release its hostages on its own, as well as regain its deterrence.
When asked by the Post about the remaining 134 hostages in Gaza, all of the Qatari officials claimed that Hamas wouldn’t share any information about their whereabouts or situation. When asked if they could receive information about who is alive or dead, they all said they weren’t granted that information, though they had requested it.
Mediating throughout the world
Between 2008 and 2016, Qatar actively mediated in nearly ten regional and international conflicts, leveraging its diplomatic influence to facilitate dialogue and find sustainable solutions without interfering in internal affairs. Its efforts included brokering the Doha Peace Agreement for Darfur, aiding in releasing Djiboutian prisoners of war in Eritrea, securing the release of hostages in Syria, resolving the presidential vacuum in Lebanon, releasing Ukrainian children and striving for Palestinian reconciliation.
According to their Foreign Ministry, Qatar’s comprehensive peace approach emphasizes reconciliation, justice, human development, and the promotion of social cohesion through education, public health, job creation, and the defense of human rights. Significant mediation examples include facilitating the US-Taliban agreement, contributing to peace in Lebanon and Darfur, mediating in the Yemen conflict, and intervening in hostage situations in Iraq and Ukraine, and between Israel and Hamas.
Hosting Hamas at the request of the US
According to the source, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister and foreign minister, has been meeting with Hamas leaders in Doha, three to four times a week since the outbreak of the war. “Our prime minister has been investing 95% of his time trying to achieve a hostage and ceasefire deal,” the source said.
As a reminder: A temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, mediated mostly by Qatar, took place from November 24 to December 1, 2023 – initially allowing for the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages, about 240 Palestinian prisoners, and humanitarian aid entry, with subsequent extensions for further releases.
Despite international support for the ceasefire and its extensions, it ended on December 1 following violations. Continued negotiations have yet to yield another hostage release or ceasefire. Hostilities were renewed, including rocket launches and air raids, resulting in casualties. Qatar, with the help of Egypt and the US, brokered the ceasefire agreement.
According to the source, 98% of the agreement for the ceasefire, which allowed for the release of 50 hostages, was in their original suggestion to Israel at the beginning of the war – which wasn’t responded to.
Mediating for the USA
The first two hostages released by Hamas were Americans Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, who live in Illinois – nearly two weeks after being abducted near Gaza. He explained that Qatar was involved in every step of this release, which was a one-sided decision by Hamas to show that they could supply their side of a potential hostage deal. He elaborated that these two women were released because of “American pressure” and that “it was a tactic for Hamas to cause aerial surveillance to stop without needing to close a deal.”
He added: “The operation was very complicated and took 12 hours, and the Hamas representative in Gaza wasn’t able to communicate with the representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since he didn’t speak English and they didn’t speak Arabic. Our representative in the field was the one who mediated the entire release.”
In a different conversation with a senior Qatari government official, the Post asked how they reacted once they saw the news on October 7. “We were shocked, surprised,” he said. “We spoke to Hamas immediately, and they initially said, ‘These are not our people; it went out of control.’”
According to this official, “We told them that there is a need for immediate action – to release everyone.” When asked by the Post if Hamas has shared any images or proof of life of any of the hostages, all of the officials responded that they haven’t ever shared such evidence with them.
As has been reported previously, toward the end of September and before the massacre, the heads of the Israeli security organizations reached out to Qatar and asked for continued funding of humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, and suggested increasing the number of Gazans given daily work permits after a period of silence.
Though all of the Qataris I have met were warm and friendly toward Israel, the statement they published on October 7 was disappointing from a Jewish point of view. “The State of Qatar expresses its deep concern over the developments in the Gaza Strip and calls on all parties to de-escalate and exercise maximum restraint,” an official statement of its Foreign Ministry said.
The statement added that Qatar stresses the need “for the international community to act urgently to compel Israel to stop its flagrant violations of international law, respect the resolutions of international legitimacy and the historical rights of the Palestinian people, and to prevent these events from being used as a pretext to ignite a new asymmetric war against Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” There was no word about the hundreds of people being kidnapped and more than 1,200 killed.
Asked how the October 7 statement was so one-sided, ignoring anything concerned with innocent civilians being slaughtered, the official explained: “Our statement was based on what we saw and knew on that Saturday. Afterward, we have condemned the killing of all civilians.”
On October 8, there was an additional statement, but it was only moderately different. “The State of Qatar reiterated its condemnation of all forms of targeting civilians, along with its call to protect them from consequences of the conflict,” it read.
Qatar also promised to promote peace in the region and “to attain a just and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian cause within the framework of the Arab initiative that ensures the establishment of an independent Palestinian State on the 1967 borders with Eastern Jerusalem as its capital.” This statement also doesn’t show any acknowledgment of or sympathy specifically for the massacre of Israelis.
When asked why they wouldn’t allow themselves to show any sort of condemnation of Hamas and its brutal actions, the official said, “Put yourself in our shoes. From January 2023, Israel was run by an extreme right-wing government whose ministers made horrible statements every other day.”
Several times, officials mentioned Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir as the reason for this government’s failure on October 7 and for causing what led to it. For example, since Smotrich was also a minister in the Defense Ministry, this led to a situation where the ministry was essentially harmed because of political considerations. “When we realized the reality on the ground, we immediately changed our attitude.”
Qatar as a peace negotiator
Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a West Asian country on the Qatar Peninsula, bordering Saudi Arabia and surrounded by the Persian Gulf, separated from Bahrain by the Gulf of Bahrain. Its capital, Doha, is home to over 80% of its population, primarily in a flat desert landscape. Ruled by the House of Thani since the 19th century and gaining independence from Britain in 1971, Qatar is a monarchy under Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, with a partially-elected assembly having limited legislative influence.
Despite a small native population compared to its expatriate workforce, Qatar boasts one of the world’s highest GDPs per capita, significant natural gas and oil reserves, and a high Human Development Index ranking. It has grown into a leading geopolitical player, considered as one of the five closest strategic allies of the United States.
It has mediated the biggest hostage deals in the world: ten American hostages in Iran, six children between Russia and Ukraine, 11 American hostages in Venezuela and one American prisoner in Syria. It is influential through its Al Jazeera Media Network, and active in regional politics, notably during the Arab Spring, while also being a major natural gas exporter.
Qatar has also been playing a behind-the-scenes role in helping achieve a regional peace plan involving Israel.
At the government headquarters in Doha, behind closed doors, with many security barriers in a restricted area, a senior security official within the Qatari government revealed that foreign ministers of six Muslim countries in the Middle East (including the non-state Palestinian Authority) have recently met and discussed creating a “day after plan” for the PA and Gaza, which includes a Palestinian state as well as Israel normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia and possibly Qatar.
The countries are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, Egypt and PA. The meeting began immediately after the Munich Security Conference in February.
According to the source, the finalized plan will be sent to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and suggested to Israel on his behalf, with the support of the five countries and the PA.
The suggested plan includes three main elements geared toward creating “regional peace,” according to the source. The first and most pressing is the release of hostages by Hamas and a limited ceasefire. The second is the unification of the foremost Palestinian movements, Hamas and Fatah, into one and “empowering the Palestinian Authority in the right way.”
The objective would be to create one Palestinian leadership in Gaza and the West Bank, while the renewed PA would be its umbrella. “The point is to de-radicalize and de-marginalize Hamas and to create a technocratic government (‘not affiliated in any way with Hamas’) for the Palestinians that would later allow genuine democratic elections,” he said. All of the officials who have spoken to the Post have admitted that the current PA is “corrupt” and that the only reason Qatar is still supporting them financially is that “the US and Israel have been requesting that we do so.”
The third element is the commitment and investment of all the aforementioned Arab countries in supporting and assisting the establishment of a two-state solution by also creating an international security force in these areas – to ensure the security of both Israelis and Palestinians.
“Hamas understands they have shot themselves in the foot and that the US won’t agree to deal with them after the war is over,” the source said. “They understand that they need to change as a movement. Otherwise, they won’t be able to be part of the newly structured PA.”
On Thursday, Mohammad Mustafa, the newly elected Palestinian prime minister, established a new government, also taking on the role of foreign minister. An ally of President Mahmoud Abbas, Mustafa was named premier earlier this month. His appointment came with the responsibility of restructuring the PA, which has partial governance in the West Bank.
However, the source shared that Qatar and other countries strictly instructed Abbas only to elect a new prime minister under stringent criteria, which don’t apply to Mustafa.
Humanitarian AID at the request of Israel
This source, who has been in touch with all of Israel’s heads of Mossad, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and COGAT for many years, refuted any sort of support for Hamas, as he explained its role in providing financial assistance, a policy which had the support of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
It was a move that the Israeli governments perceived as necessary to ensure stability in Gaza and provide Hamas with incentives not to launch rockets at Israel, he said.
“Up until October 7, we have been transferring $30 million to Gaza through two separate projects administered by COGAT,” the source explained. According to this senior official, Qatar’s first type of donation supports poor Palestinian families in Gaza with a modest sum of $100 monthly for each family.
He added that the list of families has been compiled by COGAT and changes periodically, but the money – about $10 million – has reached fewer than 100,000 families. Since last summer, instead of transferring US currency to its unofficial embassy in Gaza, it has implemented a technique at the request of Israeli institutions for prepaid debit cards that are filled with monthly sums and can be used for essential items.
The second sum of $20 million, about two-thirds of the $30 m. total, is dedicated to purchasing fuel from an Israeli company and sending it into Gaza in trucks.
An additional $35 million is transferred monthly to the PA to pay salaries of its employees, “at the request of Israel and the US as well,” he emphasized.
According to this source, Qatari financial support for Gaza has ended as a result of the October 7 massacre due to two significant factors: The inability to distribute the funds and the brutality of Hamas.
Other sources who spoke to the Post while in Doha claimed that on October 7, while the situation was still very unclear, Hamas initially claimed that they weren’t totally behind this attack and that others were more brutal than they were.
These statements are reflected in actual documentation: The Times of Israel recently published a document by former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen revealing the financial support invested by Qatar to stabilize the humanitarian situation in Gaza at the request of Israel, in the years and months before Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israeli communities across the border.
“This aid has undoubtedly played a fundamental role in achieving the continued improvement of the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and ensuring stability and security in the region,” Cohen wrote in a 2020 letter to Qatar’s emir. Cohen also expressed his “thanks and appreciation for the humanitarian aid the State of Qatar provided in recent years.”
Towards the end of October, Cohen said in an interview with the Post’s Herb Keinon, “If you want to release hostages with Hamas, a designated terrorist organization worldwide, who would be your negotiator?” he asked. “Go to Qatar. This is the only country in the world that could speak with Hamas.”
IN JANUARY, Walla News published quotes of Cohen’s criticism of Netanyahu and warned that Doha might leave the negotiating table if the prime minister’s attacks persist.
“It is puzzling to me,” the former Mossad chief admitted. “When I was present in discussions in the first days [of the war], I recommended maintaining our relationship with Qatar to the fullest extent possible.
“My real worry is that, if we don’t do that, we will reach a crisis too large to overcome,” Cohen said, warning that “Qatar would escape from the negotiating table, and we would be left without effective mediating.”
A senior government official explained that Doha won’t return to Gaza alone and will only do so if another country joins them, whether it’s the US or an Arab one. Currently, most other countries aren’t interested in doing so.
As for normalization with Qatar, the only way it can happen with Israel, according to this minister, is “it will only be on the table if it is part of a two-state solution deal.”
According to his theory, the UAE and Bahrain signed peace agreements with Israel. Still, it was mainly an issue among the politicians on both sides, and less a genuine normalization. “How many investments has Israel seen from the UAE?” a senior official I interviewed asked, answering, “a lot less than the Israelis have expected.” In addition, he said, “Look at how many Israelis visit the UAE. How many UAE citizens visit Israel as tourists? Barely any.”
The next day, in the early morning hours in a beach villa, I met another top official who is familiar with the hostage/ceasefire-deal mediation discussions. Dressed in traditional white clothing, he explained that he was sorry he couldn’t offer the Israeli guests any refreshments or food because it was Ramadan.
This top official thinks the solution is straightforward, though implementing it may be more complicated.
“The UN Security Council should recognize a Palestinian state, whose details will be defined by all parties involved within a specific time frame,” he said. “This is good for Israel because it can also take years, but it will give all sides enough time to show they are serious. If someone cannot deliver, they must answer to the international community – or the deal will be canceled.
“This type of agreement by Israel and the US can cause Arab states such as us and Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel,” he said.
But a majority of Israelis see the announcement of a Palestinian state so soon after October 7 as an award for Hamas, I responded – and that almost 100 Knesset members voted against the establishment of a Palestinian state at this time.
While many in the Israeli political system see Qatar as an enemy of Israel (“We should not accept Qatar as a mediator,” Diaspora Affairs Minister MK Amichai Chikli told the Post in December), the heads of Israeli security forces think otherwise.
They have frequently visited Qatar and asked them to mediate on Israel’s and America’s behalf. In an era when Israelis have no faith in their leadership but a restrengthening belief in their security entities, it’s unclear whether the Israeli public would rely for national security issues and strategic relationships on the heads of the Shin Bet and the Mossad or the Israeli government.
In the midst of Doha’s modern landscape, the intricate role of Qatar in the geopolitics of the Middle East comes into sharp focus. This exploration reveals a nation deeply involved in the complex dynamics of the region, a role marked by strategic mediation and dialogue in a tumultuous environment.•