Israel takes credit for reported expulsion of Hamas chief

Israel congratulated Qatar Tuesday on its reported decision to expel Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal to Turkey, and said that it expects Ankara to do the same.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman played an active role in the tiny Gulf state’s decision to kick out Mashaal, who heads the terrorist organization’s political bureau, according to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry.

The ministry, led by Liberman, “last year advanced various direct and indirect processes to bring Qatar to take that step and to get it to cease supporting Hamas,” the statement read. “Liberman and ministry professionals worked toward that goal in overt and covert channels vis-à-vis Qatar itself and other countries.”

Israel has no diplomatic ties with Doha, but Liberman has been rumored to have recently met with Gulf state officials. Mashaal has been living in Qatar since 2012, when he left Damascus in the wake of the Syrian civil war.

Jerusalem expects Ankara to act in a similar way regarding Hamas, Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said.

Meanwhile, Hamas has denied that Mashaal was expelled. “There is no truth to reports by certain media concerning the departure of Khaled Mashaal from Qatar,” Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday afternoon.

Last month, Mashaal visited Turkey, where he was celebrated enthusiastically by supporters of the ruling AK Party of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. A thaw in Qatar-Egypt ties reportedly had Mashaal worried, but according to London-based Arab paper Rai al-Youm, Doha had reassured him that the détente with Cairo would not harm the Gulf nation’s ties with Hamas.

Late last month, Liberman was reported to be in Paris to advance a new diplomatic initiative for peace with the Palestinians. Officials in his Yisrael Beytenu party refused to reveal the reason for the reported trip or even confirm it, but sources close to Liberman told Channel 2 news that a new initiative might be in the offing.

In recent weeks, the foreign minister repeatedly attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his lack of diplomatic initiative, calling for a regional agreement to end the Arab-Israel conflict.