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Israeli attacks target Hamas leadership in Qatar

Netanyahu does not rule out further strikes on Hamas leaders abroad

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out further strikes on Hamas leaders following last week's attack in Qatar, saying they would not have immunity "wherever they are".

Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Netanyahu said every country had the right "to defend itself beyond its borders".

Israel's decision to target Hamas leaders in Qatar - a close US ally - drew international outrage and criticism from US President Donald Trump. Hamas said six people were killed but that its leaders survived.

Netanyahu's comments come days after the White House said Trump had assured Qatar "that such a thing will not happen again on their soil".

When pressed on whether the US had any involvement in the strike, Netanyahu told journalists: "We did it on our own. Period."

In response to a BBC question about whether the strike had damaged US relations in the region, Rubio said Washington maintained "strong relationships with our Gulf allies".

The pair presented a broadly united front, even amid the apparent tensions, with Rubio praising the two countries' technological and cultural ties - and Netanyahu saying Israel had "no better ally".

Their meeting comes as Arab leaders hold a summit in a show of support for Qatar. The Qatari prime minister urged the international community to stop applying "double standards" and to punish Israel.

Asked later whether there were any guarantees Israel would not strike the country again, Trump said twice that Netanyahu "won't be hitting Qatar".

Qatar hosts a major US airbase and has played a key role in brokering diplomatic efforts to end the war in Gaza, serving as a mediator of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel. It has hosted the Hamas political bureau since 2012.

According to a State Department official, Rubio will travel on to Qatar following his Israel trip.

On Sunday, Netanyahu told reporters that the US-Israel relationship was as "durable as the stones in the Western Wall" while he and Rubio made a short visit to the holy site in Jerusalem's Old City.

During the trip - on which they were accompanied by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee - Rubio wrote a note and placed it into the wall, a traditional ritual performed by visitors. The men ignored reporters' questions focusing on Israel's strikes in Qatar.

Also thought to have been discussed by Netanyahu and Rubio are Israeli military plans to seize Gaza City and Israel's continued expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Over the weekend, the Israeli military pressed ahead with the demolition of residential buildings in Gaza City, and - according to local media - is now poised to begin ground operations in the Western neighbourhoods of the city.

It has demanded that Gaza City's residents leave and head south to a central area of the strip. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) estimate about 250,000 Palestinians have fled, though hundreds of thousands are believed to remain in the area.

Some say they cannot afford to go south, while others say southern Gaza is not safe as Israel has carried out air strikes there too. Some have said they attempted to go south but were unable to pitch their tents, so returned to Gaza City.

"They are asking us to leave our homes, as if they're asking us to go on a trip," said Gaza City resident Hafez Habous.

"Here in Gaza we will die for one reason: we simply have no money. We have no tents, no makeshift shelters, and transport is unavailable."

"If you speak to a driver to go south he asks for 300 shekels," he said - the equivalent of about $90 or £65.

"How come? I don't even have 100. I don't even have money for tomorrow's food. So how can we move south?"

The UN has warned an intensification of the offensive on an area where a famine has already been declared will push civilians into an "even deeper catastrophe".

Netanyahu and Rubio's meeting comes ahead of a UN General Assembly session next week, at which some leading US allies - including the UK, France, Canada, Australia and Belgium - are expected to recognise the State of Palestine.

This expected recognition has intensified debate within Israel around the future of the West Bank, with more hardline elements of the government insisting annexation is the only way to prevent a Palestinian state.

In late August, the Israeli government gave final approval for the E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem, which would, in effect, split the West Bank in two - dividing the Palestinian populations in the north and south.

Signing an agreement for the project last Thursday, Netanyahu said: "We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state. This place belongs to us."

Earlier this month, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich unveiled his proposal for the annexation of approximately four-fifths of the West Bank.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state - during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The settlements are illegal under international law.

On Monday evening, Rubio is set to visit the City of David archaeological park, which was established by a settler organisation in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem.

He will attend the inauguration of the "Pilgrimage Road", a tunnel excavated underneath Palestinian homes that is said to mark the route of a Roman-era street taken by pilgrims to the Biblical temple that once stood on the site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary).

Critics say the City of David park is an attempt to politicise archaeology, at the expense of Palestinian residents.

BBC
 
PM Shehbaz meets Qatari emir, reaffirms Pakistan’s all-out support after Israeli attack

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in Doha on Tuesday and reaffirmed Pakistan’s “all-out support and solidarity” for the Gulf state after last week’s Israeli attack on its capital.

The meeting was held on the sidelines of the emergency Arab-Islamic Summit in Doha, where leaders from the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) yesterday called for a review of ties with Israel following its deadly strike on Hamas members in the Qatari capital as they discussed a Gaza ceasefire proposal.

“While reaffirming Pakistan’s all-out support and solidarity with Qatar at this critical time, the prime minister termed Israel’s attack of September 9, a flagrant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as a serious breach of international law,” read a press release issued today by the government-run Press Information Department (PID).

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir were also present in the “warm and cordial” meeting, the PID statement said.

“The prime minister stressed that Israel’s aggression in the Middle East must be stopped immediately, and unity within the ummah was vitally important, in the face of repeated Israeli provocations,” the press release said.

PM Shehbaz “deeply appreciated” Qatar’s decision to convene the emergency Arab-Islamic summit, which the Foreign Office said was co-sponsored by Pakistan.

The premier further recalled that at Qatar’s request, Pakistan had sought an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the “deteriorating situation in the Middle East”. Pakistan took centre stage at that summit as its envoy and Israeli ambassador traded barbs while major powers censured Tel Aviv over its attack on Doha.

The Qatari emir, as per the PID, expressed appreciation for PM Shehbaz’s participation in the Arab-Islamic summit as well as for his one-day visit to Doha last week to “express solidarity with Qatar at this difficult time”.

“Both leaders agreed to remain in close contact in view of the unfolding situation in the region,” the press release added.

PM Shehbaz reiterated Pakistan’s “strongest condemnation of the Israeli strike on a residential area in Doha on September 9, that led to the loss of precious lives and injured several others”. Hamas said that five of its members were killed in the attack, including the son of Hamas’s exiled Gaza chief Khalil al-Hayya. A Qatari security official was also killed in the strike.

Recalling his last week’s meeting with the Qatari emir — which took place two days after the attack — the premier “emphasised, once again, that Pakistan and Qatar’s fraternal ties were historic, longstanding and abiding and they would grow stronger in the coming days”.

Meetings with other Mideast key players

Yesterday, on the sidelines of the Arab-Islamic summit, PM Shehbaz held a bilateral meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, during which Dar and COAS Munir were also present.

The prime minister also met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and appreciated the latter’s “proactive diplomacy at this difficult juncture”, the government said on X.

Both leaders termed the violation of Qatar’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity by Israel as reckless and a blatant violation of international law”.

In his meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein, PM Shehbaz “lauded King Abdullah II’s steadfast leadership on the Palestinian cause”, the government’s official X account said.

“The two leaders underscored the urgency of Muslim unity in confronting Israel’s belligerent actions and agreed to continue close consultations to mobilise international support for peace and stability in the region,” it added.

Addressing the summit, PM Shehbaz had suggested the formation of a task force to counter Israeli aggression and expansionism, while terming its attack on Qatar a “hegemonic ambition on part of Israel to control the whole region”.

DAWN NEWS
 
Netanyahu apologizes to Qatari PM for Israeli strike on Doha

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly formally apologized to Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani for the September 9 strike on Doha, which violated Qatari sovereignty, according to multiple media reports.

Hamas had claimed that its central leadership remained safe in the strike, but six people, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya, were martyred. Among the dead was also a Qatari security officer.

A source close to Netanyahu told Reuters, as well as according to Channel 12 and Axios report, that Netanyahu spoke with Al Thani by phone from the White House, where he was hosted by US President Donald Trump.

The Israeli leader expressed regret over the strike and the civilian loss of life, telling his Qatari counterpart that Israel had not intended to cause harm to Qatar.

Israeli state media said the phone call lasted several minutes and was facilitated while Netanyahu and Trump were discussing the war in Gaza and ongoing diplomatic efforts. A Qatari technical team is also at the White House, according to a separate source briefed on the talks.


 
New Trump executive order guarantees Qatar security after Israeli attack

President Donald Trump has issued an executive order in which the United States pledges to guarantee Qatar’s security – including retaliatory military action – if the country were to come under attack again, in the wake of Israel’s unprecedented air strikes on the country last month that drew regional and global outrage.

Israel said that the attack targeted Hamas leaders who were in the capital, Doha, discussing a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza under Qatari auspices. It killed several members of the Palestinian group’s team, but not the leaders, as well as a Qatari security officer.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologised to Qatar for the killing of its citizen. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani received the apology on Monday in a joint call from Trump and Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House.


 
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