An anonymous Israeli official tells the Kan public broadcaster that Israel’s standing in the Gulf is now at a lower point than it was after the 2010 killing of a Hamas official in the United Arab Emirates, an operation widely blamed on the Mossad.
“Israel’s regional situation is worse than after the elimination of Mabhouh,” the unnamed official says in the wake of the Doha strike last week.
Israel attempted to kill the leaders of Hamas with an attack in Qatar last week, a strike that risked derailing efforts to broker a truce in Gaza to end the nearly two-year-old conflict and secure the release of the hostages. The attack was widely condemned in the Middle East and beyond.
In 2010, Hamas’s Mahmoud Mabhouh — a co-founder of Hamas’s military wing and a procurer of arms for use by the terror group against Israel — was found dead in a Dubai hotel room. The killing led to a crisis in the then-secret, but growing, ties between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi.
Agencies contributed to this report.
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