Israel has displayed “rogue state behaviour” by targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar in a major escalation, once again pushing the volatile region into a potential vortex of chaos. 

The daytime attack on a residential building in Doha has reportedly killed a couple of Hamas members, though the Palestinian group’s team negotiating a potential ceasefire to end the Gaza war is said to be safe.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has attacked at least six countries across the Middle East: Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, Syria and Qatar. 

Under the Trump administration’s constant support, the Zionist state has become even more aggressive, moving to annex the occupied West Bank, sending land forces to Syria’s south and publicly intervening in the country’s internal affairs as well as killing the prime minister and ministers of the Houthi-led Yemeni government. 

Dr Mahjoob Zweiri, a non-resident senior fellow at the Doha-based Middle East Council on Global Affairs, tells TRT World that Israel’s blatant violation of international norms in attacking the Qatari capital and other Muslim-majority states across the Middle East was the action of a rogue state.

Zweiri calls the attack on Doha “barbaric aggression”, adding that “Israel does not behave as a state but as a gang”. 

Despite Israel’s increasing aggression, there is no real international pressure on the Netanyahu government to stop its genocidal campaign against Palestinians that has killed nearly 64,000 people, besides the attacks on other Middle Eastern states.  

Hamas has long been hosted by Qatar, which has been instrumental in ceasefire and hostage-release mediations between the Palestinian resistance group and Israelis since October 2023. 

Besides its ‘gang’ attitude, according to Zweiri, Israeli aggressiveness is also rooted in the Netanyahu government’s “failure of achieving any of their war goals” in Gaza and other Palestinian territories. 

Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas, continue attacks on Israeli forces in Gaza and in other cities, says the Doha-based academic. Also, despite losing top officials, Yemen’s Houthis continue to target Israeli cities. 

Sabotaging peace

Zweiri also draws attention to the fact that Israel attacked Qatar in the middle of ceasefire negotiations, signalling its intention to sabotage peace efforts. “No doubt Netanyahu does not want to end the war,” he says. 

This was something the Turkish foreign ministry also pointed out. “The targeting of the Hamas negotiating team while ceasefire negotiations are ongoing demonstrates that Israel aims to perpetuate the war, not achieve peace,” said the foreign ministry statement. 

Israel also previously attacked Iran during Tehran’s crucial nuclear deal negotiations with the Trump administration, blowing up the whole effort. 

The Turkish foreign ministry also said that the recent attack shows the Netanyahu government’s notorious “expansionist policies in the region and its adoption of terrorism as a state policy.” Several ministers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet publicly defended the country’s expansionist aims, calling for the realisation of Greater Israel. 

Did the US allow the attack? 

Luciano Zaccara, a Doha-based expert on the Middle East and Gulf, points out the fact that having an American base did not previously serve the purpose of defending Qatar from an Iranian attack, which is an enemy of the US and Israel. And now the presence of a US base in Doha also did not help to prevent an attack from Israel, an ally of the US, he says. 

“The most paradoxical thing is that at least Iran informed both Qatar and the US ahead of the attack that it would happen and therefore there were preparations for that,” Zaccara tells TRT World. 

While the Israeli attack on Doha was done without any kind of information to Qataris, the US was informed by the Israelis, according to the White House.  

“If Washington gave a green light to do so, meaning that the United States allowed an attack against one ally by another ally,” says Zaccara. 

But a more recent US statement signalled that Israeli action might have even upset US calculations. 

“Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation, close ally of the United States, that is working very hard and gravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals,” said a White House statement.

What can Qatar do? 

Qatar condemned the Israeli attack, describing it as an “cowardly” act, which “targeted residential buildings housing several members of the political bureau of Hamas” in Doha," according to a statement on X from the country’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari. 

Qatar will take this matter to its top security council to discuss its response to the Israeli attack, says Zweiri. 

Like during the Gulf blockade against Qatar, Doha will reach out to Türkiye, one of the strongest regional military forces, to get Ankara’s advice and help, says the academic. 

“I expect serious coordination between the two countries. Let’s not forget that Israel attacked Syria yesterday” where Syria’s new post-Assad government and Ankara collaborate to improve the Middle Eastern state’s security apparatus, according to Zweiri. 

The Turkish foreign ministry stated that Ankara is “on the side of Qatar against this despicable attack targeting its sovereignty and security,” adding that Türkiye reiterates its call to the international community to pressure Israel to end its ongoing aggression in Palestine and the region.