Qatar shocked over alleged criticism by Netanyahu

Qatar is very upset about comments made by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said that Qatar’s role as a mediator in the Gaza war is causing problems.

Israeli TV aired a recording of Mr. Netanyahu talking to the families of hostages held by Hamas. In the recording, he said that he did not thank Qatar.

“They have an advantage. ” “Because they give money to Hamas,” he says.

Qatar said the comments were “irresponsible” and “not surprising” if they are true.

The small country in the Gulf has been talking to Israel since the 1990s, but they have not become official friends.

Qatar has always supported the Palestinians and gives a place to political leaders of Hamas. Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel, the UK, the US, and other countries.

It has given a lot of money to help Gaza, which has been blocked by Israel and Egypt since 2006, when Hamas won elections. The blockade got stronger the next year because Hamas took control of Gaza by pushing out the PA forces with violence.

Since 2018, Israel has let Qatar pay the salaries of many government workers in Gaza, help the poorest families and give fuel to the power plant there. Qatar says they only gave money for civilian and humanitarian reasons.

The policy caused arguments in Israel because some people said it was helping Hamas to keep control and pay for its military actions.

Mr Netanyahu, who has been in office for most of the past 15 years, said that the wall is a way to stop attacks on Israel and help the people in Gaza.

After the attacks on southern Israel on October 7th, about 1,300 people were killed and 250 others were taken as hostages back to Gaza. He said the accusations that he encouraged the payments to help Hamas instead of the PA were not true.

Israel fought back against the attacks by starting a big military operation in Gaza to try to wipe out Hamas. Over 25,000 people died in the war, as reported by the Hamas health ministry.

Qatar helped make a deal with Hamas to stop the fighting for a week in November. As part of the deal, 105 Israeli and foreign hostages were released in exchange for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The emirate has been trying for weeks to make a new ceasefire deal. The situation in Gaza is getting worse and the Israeli government is feeling more pressure to free the remaining hostages.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Channel 12 TV played a recording of Mr Netanyahu saying to the families of hostages: “You don’t hear me thanking Qatar. ” “Did you see that. ”

“Why Because I see it as similar to the UN or Red Cross, and in some ways, it’s even more of a problem. I don’t have any false beliefs about them. ”

“I am willing to use any actor right now to help me bring the hostages home,” he said.

Israel says the UN and Red Cross are not doing enough to help the hostages or get them released.

The prime minister said Qatar could help because they have influence over Hamas.

“Why do they have power. Because they provide the money. ”

On Wednesday night, Majed al-Ansari from Qatar’s foreign ministry said on a social media site that the comments, if true, are not helpful and could harm the efforts to save lives, although they are not unexpected.

“For many months, Qatar has been talking to different groups, including Israeli organizations, to make a new agreement about hostages and to get help to people in Gaza. Last year, they helped free over 100 hostages through mediation. ”

He said that Mr. Netanyahu seems to be working against the mediation efforts for his own political gain.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Qatar helps terrorist groups. It supports Hamas and is mostly to blame for the killing of Israeli people by Hamas.

“Qatar will have absolutely no involvement in Gaza after the war,” he added.

Qatar’s foreign ministry did not say anything right away.