Netanyahu must be 'brought to justice' after strikes on Doha, Qatar's prime minister says
Qatar's prime minister has called on the international community to bring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to "justice," and described the strikes targeting senior Hamas officials as they met to discuss the latest US ceasefire proposal an act of "state terror."
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani said he had "no words to express how enraged we are."
When asked to express his anger in one word, he said: "This is state terror."
On Tuesday, several Israeli missiles targeted a building in Doha's West Bay Lagoon area, which is home to foreign embassies, residential buildings and schools, as Hamas members gathered to discuss the latest US proposal for ending the near two-year conflict.
A source close to the Palestinian movement told Middle East Eye that all of the senior leaders targeted in the attack survived, including Hamas leaders Khalil al-Hayya, Khaled Meshal, Zaher Jabarin, and others.
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However, six people were amongst those killed, including al-Hayya's son, Hammam; his office director, Jihad Lubbad; and Qatari Lance Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari.
Following the attack, Netanyahu again threatened to try kill Hamas leaders in Qatar if the Gulf Country refused to expel the officials, drawing a sharp response from Doha.
In Wednesday's interview, the Qatari prime minister said he refused to accept threats from "someone like Netanyahu" who, along with Israel’s former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, is accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of war crimes related to Israel's actions in Gaza.
"He is calling about 'bring them to justice'. He needs to be brought to justice," the Qatari prime minister said in a defiant tone.
"He's the one who's wanted at the ICC. That's number one.
"So I think that someone like him, trying to lecture the world about the law - he's breaking every law. He broke every international law. He's starving people in Gaza, and he's doing all these sorts of actions in the entire region. What's next? What's next for him?”
The Qatari prime minister also relayed how he had met with one of the Israeli captives' families the morning Israel launched the unprecedented strikes on Doha. He recalled how they told him they were "counting" on the mediation that Qatar was brokering.
"They have no other hope for that [release of captives]," the Qatari prime minister said. "I think what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages."
The premier said that since the war erupted, Netanyahu has systematically "tried to undermine any chance of stability, any possibility of peace and any chance of retrieving his own hostages."
The Qatari official also said that he had "on many occasions" witnessed Netanyahu's attempts to kill a ceasefire deal.
He maintained that US President Donald Trump did not agree with Israel's attacks on Doha.
"The US has expressed on many occasions their support for us. The president was very clear that this is unacceptable and he didn't agree with Israel's actions," he said.
'Barbaric action'
The Qatari prime minister also described Israel's attack as a new low, not just because Gulf state was sovereign territory, but because he believed there should be a minimum level of decency and ethics for the country’s multi-year role as a mediator.
At one point in the interview, the CNN interviewer, Becky Anderson said: "You've described him as a narcissist, what do you mean by that?"
The Qatari official responded by saying that Israel's actions were "barbaric".
“We were thinking that we are dealing with civilised people,” he said. “That's the way we are dealing with others. And the action that he took, I cannot describe it, but it's a barbaric action.”
The interview was his second one with CNN in two days. On Tuesday, he told CNN that the entire Gulf region was at risk after Tuesday's strikes on Hamas's political leadership.
He also promised there would be a collective response from the region to deter Israel from continuing its "bullying."
More than 238,000 Palestinians have been killed, wounded or are missing since Israel went to war in Gaza in October 2023, with recent reports, based on Israeli military intelligence data, claiming that more than 80 percent of those killed in the enclave until May of this year were civilians.
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