Israel's attack on Qatar rattles Gulf region

7 hours ago 2

Israel bombing Qatar brings the war in Gaza to the Gulf, rattling a US ally and upending diplomatic ceasefire efforts.

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Israel today, and he plans to address the recent Israeli strike on Qatar, a strike the Trump administration said, quote, "does not advance Israel or America's goals." Qatar is a U.S. ally that has played a major role as a mediator in the war between Israel and Hamas. Tomorrow, it will host an emergency summit of Arab and Muslim heads of state. NPR's Aya Batrawy reports from Qatar's capital Doha as the country reels from the Israeli attack.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).

AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Qatar's ruling emir stands in the Imam Abdel Wahhab mosque in Doha for funeral prayers. Before him are six coffins - five draped in Palestinian flags and one in Qatar's.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Arabic).

BATRAWY: The emir then reaches over to hug a tearful, inconsolable boy - the son of a slain Qatari security officer killed with five lower-level Hamas figures in Israel's bombing of a residential suburb in this Gulf Arab capital. The Qatari-funded and based Al Jazeera news channel describes it as the first time Palestinian and Qatari blood mix from Israel's war in Gaza.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: (Speaking Arabic).

BATRAWY: That war is more than a thousand miles away, but Israeli warplanes brought the billowing gray dust of their airstrikes to Doha when they bombed a residence where Hamas' exiled political leaders were meeting to review the latest U.S. proposal for Gaza. Israel missed its mark. No senior Hamas officials were confirmed killed. But the strike hit at the core of Qatar's high-stakes policy of being a mediator in conflicts around the world. Doha is where tough diplomacy happens.

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BATRAWY: I'm here at the Ritz Carlton. This is one of the most opulent hotels in the Gulf region, and it is on a - built on an artificial island. And it is here, surrounded by marble floors, marble walls, a water fountain, you know, the piano playing in the background that Hamas' political leaders and Israeli security officials would have indirect talks, with Qatari officials shuffling messages between the floors of this hotel and two others like it.

Israel's attack on Qatar upended those efforts. At a U.N. Security Council session after the attack, Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani, asked, how could Qatar host Israeli representatives for ceasefire talks as Israeli leaders are plotting and carrying out attacks on its soil?

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PRIME MINISTER MOHAMMED AL THANI: (Speaking Arabic).

BATRAWY: And he asked if anyone had ever heard of a state attacking a mediator with warplanes and carrying out annihilation attempts on the negotiators.

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AL THANI: (Speaking Arabic).

BATRAWY: Al Thani said Israel's being led by, quote, "bloodthirsty extremists." President Donald Trump says Israel unilaterally attacked Hamas in Qatar without notifying the U.S. first - something he says he's very unhappy about. Trump met with Qatar's prime minister after the attack at the White House. Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow on U.S. defense policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says the attack shakes the confidence of Gulf Arab states in American security guarantees, which Trump emphasized on his trip here in May.

ELIZABETH DENT: You know, I think what the United States has to demonstrate now is its ability to rein in Israel.

BATRAWY: But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains defiant.

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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: And I say to Qatar and all nations who harbor terrorists, you either expel them, or you bring them to justice. Because if you don't, we will.

BATRAWY: Many Israelis initially celebrated the attack.

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BATRAWY: Israel's Channel 14 news showed its host popping a champagne bottle to music and a cheering live audience.

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BATRAWY: Israelis thought the attack had killed the leaders of Hamas, the group behind the deadly October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

YOEL GUZANSKY: But then with the passing of time, it was realized that we failed to do that.

BATRAWY: Yoel Guzansky, senior fellow and head of the Gulf program at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, says Israel took a gamble with this attack and lost. He says Netanyahu appears to be chasing an elusive final moment, a crescendo to show that Israel's pursuit of Hamas and its war in Gaza that's killed tens of thousands of Palestinians isn't a failure. But Guzansky says...

GUZANSKY: So we still have hostages there, and Hamas is not crushed - big failure.

BATRAWY: Dania Thafer, executive director of the Gulf International Forum, tells me from Qatar the Israeli attack also raises concerns about the United States' ability to protect its Gulf partners. Qatar not only hosts Hamas but also thousands of U.S. troops and the headquarters of CENTCOM's forward command in the region.

DANIA THAFER: From the view and the perspective across the region, it's kind of becoming an enabler of insecurity in the region. And so the U.S. hasn't been using its leverage to deter these kind of attacks.

BATRAWY: Those attacks included one in June when Iranian missiles, fired with advanced notice, were directed at U.S. troops in Qatar during Israel's war with Iran. Dent of the Washington Institute says CENTCOM can protect the Gulf, but it was caught by surprise.

DENT: I think that there was probably a critical gap in radar coverage, and then probably some confusion at CENTCOM of, like - hey, one partner is attacking another partner, how do we handle this? - that led to this breakdown in communications and inability to notify the Qataris in time.

BATRAWY: Trump's commitment to the Gulf's security is being put to the test by Israel, and so too are his Abraham Accords. Monday marks five years since the United Arab Emirates and Israel established ties. But just days ago, the Emiratis summoned an Israeli diplomat, telling him the attack on Qatar is an attack on the Gulf's security as a whole. Aya Batrawy, NPR News, Doha, Qatar.

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