Israeli PM Netanyahu said Hamas leaders in Qatar are the
main obstacle to a hostage deal and ending the Gaza war, urging their removal
to secure peace.
US partner Qatar, one of the locations for ceasefire negotiations, denounced Israel's airstrikes against the Hamas leadership in Doha.
"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.
The leaders had convened in Doha to talk about a fresh ceasefire proposal from the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Hamas claims that while its senior officials and members of its negotiating team survived the attack, five of its members including the son of its exiled Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya were killed. According to Qatar, one of its internal security personnel was also slain.
"The targeted operation in Qatar proved beyond any doubt that there is one obstacle to returning the ... hostages and ending the war: Prime Minister Netanyahu. Every time a deal approaches, Netanyahu sabotages it,"
the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement after the premier accused Hamas leaders of derailing efforts to end the war.
The Doha bombing, according to Hamas, was an attempt by Israel to sabotage ceasefire talks, and it would not alter the group's demands for an end to the Gaza War.
Israel has asked that Hamas disarm and release all of the captives that are still being held in Gaza. According to Hamas, it will not surrender its weapons until the Palestinians have an independent state and will not release all detainees without a deal that would end the conflict.
What would Qatar's response be to demands to expel Hamas leaders?
Qatar has indicated that the Hamas political office in Doha
operates in line with mediation efforts solicited by the United States and
Israel to enable indirect communications and negotiations for a ceasefire in
Gaza.
Qatari officials indicate that the negotiations with Hamas are done transparently and with international backing, with U.S. and Israeli delegations part of them.
Qatar's foreign ministry rebuffed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's comments calling for expulsion of Hamas leaders as "dangerous", and "explicit threats of future transgressions of state sovereignty." The Qatari Prime Minister stated that Israel's airstrikes on Hamas in the capital of Doha have "killed the hope" for hostage release and accused Netanyahu of dragging the Middle East into chaos.