Washington: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that Israel’s attack on Qatar, which targeted Hamas members, will not alter the relationship between Tel Aviv and Washington. “Obviously, we were not happy about it; the president was not happy about it,” Rubio told reporters on Saturday before leaving for Britain and Israel. “It’s not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis, but we are going to have to talk about it – primarily, what impact does this have” on diplomatic efforts to reach a truce in Gaza.
According to TRTworld.com, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that eliminating Hamas leaders residing in Qatar would remove the primary obstacle to freeing all hostages and ending the violence in Gaza. “The Hamas terrorist chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza. They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war,” Netanyahu said in a post on X.
Hamas has described the Doha attack as an attempt by Israel to disrupt the ceasefire negotiations and stated that it would not alter the group’s conditions for ending the conflict in Gaza. Following Israel’s attack on Doha, Tel Aviv has targeted a total of six countries in the region, including Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Qatar.
