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Friday, January 2, 2026
Israel asked Qatar to boost Gaza assistance month before Oct. 7 — report
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Israel asked Qatar to increase the assistance it was sending to Gaza one month before the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre, the Yedioth Aharonoth daily reports.
At a meeting in a Jerusalem hotel in September 2023, Mohammed al-Emadi, who oversaw the deliveries of hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from Qatar to Gaza between 2018 and 2021, was asked by Israeli officials to increase the purchase of fuel from Egypt for the terror group’s benefit, the report says.
Hamas demanded the extra fuel as part of an emerging deal for ending the March of Return protests at the Gaza border — a ruse to lull Israel into believing the terror group was interested in easing economic conditions in the Strip ahead of launching the brutal massacre.
Emadi said he could not approve the demand on the spot, and later that month, then-Mossad chief David Barnea visited senior Qatari officials in Doha to tell them to continue their assistance to Gaza, according to the report.
From 2018, Qatar provided dozens of millions of dollars in cash to Gaza every month. The payments were publicly encouraged by Netanyahu as a means to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Strip.
Netanyahu reportedly was warned at least twice before the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that the terror group’s military chief, Muhammad Deif, was appropriating funds provided by Qatar to Gaza with the premier’s approval.
The Times of Israel Community.