Qatar blasts Shin Bet probe that said Doha’s funds to Gaza helped Hamas launch Oct. 7
Gulf state says no Qatari money went to terror group’s political or military wing, stresses that yearslong payments to Strip were made with consent of Israel, including Shin Bet
Qatar on Wednesday lambasted a probe by Israel’s Shin Bet security agency that cited the Gulf state’s money to Gaza over the years as having contributed to Hamas’s buildup of its forces for the October 7, 2023, 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.
The Shin Bet pointed, among many other factors, to Israel’s yearslong policy of facilitating payments by Qatar to Hamas-ruled Gaza. The Gulf state, with which Israel has no diplomatic relations, has long hosted some of Hamas’s political leadership.
The Qatari payments to Gaza were officially never to fund the Hamas terror organization itself, but some have challenged whether this panned out, and the policy has been criticized as ignoring the fungibility of money regardless, with critics arguing that Hamas, taken off the hook for legitimate payments, would simply divert its savings to fund terror instead.
The Shin Bet probe’s full results are secret, but a summary provided to the press noted various factors had helped the terror group in building up its strength.
The summary mentioned that between 2018 and 2021, Israel approved the transfer of Qatari funds “for the cash payment of Hamas employees’ salaries” as well as “the transfer of large amounts of cash to families” in need. The summary later named “the flow of money from Qatar to Gaza and its delivery to Hamas’s military wing” as one of the factors in Hamas’s force buildup.
A statement issued by Qatar’s International Media Office rejected “false accusations made by the Shin Bet security agency linking Qatari aid to the October 7 attack,” calling them “yet another example of deflection driven by self-interest and self-preservation in Israeli politics.”
It said Qatar “has provided humanitarian support to families in Gaza over many years,” including “essential supplies such as food and medicine, as well as the provision of electricity to power homes.”
Doha noted: “It is well known within Israel and internationally that all aid sent from Qatar to Gaza was transferred with the full knowledge, support and supervision of the current and previous Israeli administrations and their security agencies — including the Shin Bet.”
And it insisted that “no aid has ever been delivered to Hamas’s political or military wing,” and said money for families was supervised by the UN “through programs approved by Israel.”
“At this critical juncture, the Shin Bet and other Israeli security agencies should focus on saving the remaining hostages and finding a solution that ensures long-term regional security, rather than resorting to diversionary tactics such as scapegoating Qatar for political longevity. Claims that Qatari aid went to Hamas are entirely false and serve as evidence that the accusers are intent on prolonging the war.”
Despite its anger, Qatar said it would continue to serve as a mediator between Israel and Hamas “because of its belief in diplomacy as the only way forward to a better future for both Palestinians and Israelis.”
The row came as the Shin Bet is investigating ties between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides and Qatar, amid allegations that Netanyahu’s former spokesman Eli Feldstein, who has been charged with harming national security in a case involving the theft and leaking of classified IDF documents, worked for Qatar via an international firm contracted by Doha to feed top Israeli journalists pro-Qatar stories.
Qatar’s prime minister denied last month having any knowledge of his country hiring any of Netanyahu’s aides.
Responding to the scandal in a rare interview with Israeli media, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari told The Times of Israel on Sunday: “Regarding aid from Qatar to Gaza, we’ve been very clear and transparent about this from the beginning. All of the aid that went into Gaza was monitored by the Israeli government, and the process was actually not only welcomed but requested by the Israeli government,”
A report Friday in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper alleged that Netanyahu originally initiated the Qatari payments to Gaza after thwarting a Saudi initiative to rebuild the Strip, following the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, which would have replaced Hamas with a revamped Palestinian Authority.
According to the report, Netanyahu sought to avoid PA rule of the Strip, and preferred to have Qatar prop up the terror government than see Gaza change hands to the other Palestinian faction. (Netanyahu publicly endorsed and defended the Qatari funding to Gaza, including in 2018 comments to reporters.)
The report, which Netanyahu’s office denied, also said that some in the intelligence community warned about the Qatari payments and that Naftali Bennett, who briefly served as prime minister from 2021-2022, ordered that they be stopped, but that Netanyahu, upon his return to office, reversed this decision before it was implemented.
The Times of Israel Community.