Qatar to hold emergency summit with Arab countries after Israeli strike on Doha
Doha will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Sunday and Monday to discuss the Israeli attack on Qatar’s capital, its state news agency QNA reported.
Israel carried out the strike in Doha in an attempt to kill Hamas’s political leadership. The group said the attack missed all its top negotiators, though five Hamas members were killed including the son of exiled Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya.
Qatari prime minister has said Benjamin Netanyahu “killed any hope” of a deal to release all the Israeli hostages in Gaza when he ordered an airstrike on Doha.
Calling Tuesday's airstrike on Doha an act of “state terror”, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani said: “I was meeting one of the hostage’s families the morning of the attack. They are counting on this mediation, they have no other hope for that.”
Donald Trump has called the strike "unfortunate" and reportedly held a heated phone call with Netanyahu yesterday where he complained about a lack of advance warning given to the US.
Netanyahu is said to have replied that he had a brief window to act and took the opportunity, senior US officials told the Wall St Journal.
Hamas has said its top leaders survived the Israeli airstrike on Doha but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya — Hamas' leader for Gaza and its 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.
