From the Liveblog of
Monday, May 5, 2025
Continuing rhetorical attacks, Foreign Ministry says Qatar ‘still seems to support Hamas’
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Israel continues its rhetorical offensive against Qatar, saying that the Gulf emirate “still seems to support Hamas.”
Responding to Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, who called recent remarks by the Prime Minister’s Office “inflammatory,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry writes on its social media accounts that “the Qatari Foreign Ministry is confused or wants to confuse the world.”
“Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East,” writes the Foreign Ministry. “On the other hand, Hamas is a genocidal terrorist regime that murdered more than 1,100 innocent people on October 7 and still holds 59 innocent people hostage.”
“Unfortunately, Qatar still seems to support Hamas,” it says.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have publicly accused Qatar of convincing Hamas not to accept a compromise proposal that would have freed living hostages and brought about a temporary ceasefire. An Arab official, not from Qatar, told The Times of Israel that the claim was “manufactured” by Jerusalem.
The most recent verbal attack by the Foreign Ministry comes a week before US President Donald Trump comes to the region, including a stop in Qatar.
Over the weekend, Qatar accused Israel of starving Gazans and blocking medicine.
“Qatar must decide if it is on the side of genocidal terror regimes or on the side of those who counter their evil,” says the Foreign Ministry.
The Times of Israel Community.