Report: Mossad chief blocked Foreign Ministry campaign to tarnish Qatar’s image after October 7

Shortly after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas and the start of the ongoing war, the Foreign Ministry prepared a plan to damage Qatar’s public image, Haaretz reports.

The plan was blocked by Mossad chief David Barnea, according to the report. Barnea argued that Israel would need Qatar’s mediation to get hostages out of Gaza.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had signed off on the initiative, which would have used social media, diplomats, and messages to the press to portray Qatar as a sponsor of terror.

The plan was prepared by an outside consultant who had been a senior member of the security services, according to Haaretz.

Last week, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered a criminal investigation into ties between officials working in the Prime Minister’s Office and Qatar.

Israel does not have diplomatic relations with Qatar, but the two countries established trade relations in 1996, which lasted until 2009 when Doha severed them due to a previous round of fighting between Israel and Gaza.

Earlier today, Qatar lambasted a probe by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency that named the Gulf state’s money to Gaza over the years as having contributed to Hamas’s buildup of its forces for the October 7 onslaught.

Doha insisted that “no aid has ever been delivered to Hamas’s political or military wing” and accused the Shin Bet of “scapegoating Qatar” in the agency’s report about failures leading up to Hamas’s onslaught.