Mideast: How the Doha Strikes Could Have Shifted Middle Eastern Diplomacy
AFP
Despite a series of Israeli airstrikes in Doha targeting Hamas’ leadership, which have raised concerns about the possibility of successful ceasefire negotiations, Israel and Hamas announced on Thursday October 9, that they had agreed on a ceasefire proposal.
On Monday October 12, Hamas released all remaining alive Israeli hostages, as Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners under the Gaza ceasefire deal.
On September 9, 2025, Israel launched an unprecedented series of airstrikes targeting Hamas’ senior officials in Doha, killing six people, according to Hamas.
Striking the upscale neighborhood High Bay Lagoon housing several members of Hamas’ political bureau, according to a spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, Israel quickly took responsibility for the attack, claiming it was part of a broader operation titled “Summit of Fire”, targeting a gathering of Hamas leaders reportedly meeting to discuss the terms of a U.S.-drafted ceasefire proposal.
While the Israeli strikes primarily targeted Khaled Meshaal, former head of Hamas’ political bureau, and its current acting chair, Khalil al-Hayya, the attack failed to kill both men, but instead resulted in the deaths of five Hama officials, including al-Hayya’s son, along with one Qatari security official.
The U.S. denied any involvement in Israel’s decision to carry out the attack and claimed to have alerted Qatar to the incoming strikes as soon as it became aware of them - a claim Qatar denies.
Unprecedented attacks on Qatari soil
This series of airstrikes marked the first time Israel breached Qatar’s national sovereignty - a key mediator in the Gaza ceasefire negotiations and one of the U.S.’s most prominent allies in the Middle East.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani qualified the attack of “state terrorism,” and who alongside Qatar’s Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, attended the funeral of those killed in the strikes.
Strongly condemning Israel’s actions, the Qatari Prime Minister urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be brought before the International Criminal Court.
World leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney condemned the Israeli strikes on Doha, fearing it would “imperil efforts to advance peace and security”, and U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington he was “not thrilled with the entire situation”.
Since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israel has carried out airstrikes in Palestine, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Tunisia, but had never before targeted a Gulf country, despite the known establishment of Hamas’ political bureau in the Qatari capital in 2012.
Israel’s attack on Doha raises questions regarding the future of the kingdom’s role in regional and international mediation efforts.
Qatar’s crucial place as regional mediator
As the host of the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East and the only Gulf country to maintain direct channels with both Israel and Hamas, Qatar stands as a key player in the region’s realpolitik.
Qatar’s long history as neutral territory for peace negotiations in the region makes Israel’s strikes an unprecedented attack - notably as Doha and Cairo remain the only regional mediators leading the diplomatic efforts to bring a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage deal.
From coordinated efforts with the U.S. to successfully brokering a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in June 2025, to hosting as the key mediator and host in the 2020 Doha Agreements between the U.S. and the Afghan Taliban, Qatar had maintained a near-sacrosaint status as neutral ground until the Israeli strikes.
While Qatar had long stood as a diplomatic powerhouse in the Middle East, the Israeli attack has jeopardized the kingdom’s status.
Negotiations on shaky grounds
The Israeli strike on the Qatari capital challenges the country’s diplomatic standing as a crucial mediator in regional conflicts, and as a close ally to the U.S., with President Trump seemingly continuing to consider Israel as one of America’s greatest allies.
Additionally, Israel’s attack in Doha stalled the Trump administration’s efforts to expand the Abraham Accords to Qatar (the 2020 normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates), as the Arab-Islamic summit met in Doha mid-September and recommended that its members review their diplomatic ties with Israel, suspend weapons transfers, and impose sanctions following the strikes.
All while threatening Doha’s involvement in future ceasefire talks, the Israeli strikes also put to the test the foundations of the Abraham Accords, with the UAE calling the attack a “reckless aggression” and violation of Qatar’s sovereignty.
Peace talks relocated to Egypt
Although many believed in the aftermath of the strikes that Israel’s latest attack on Doha would most likely torpedo Qatar’s effort to help negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza, ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel continued as U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new ceasefire proposal in the week following the attacks.
After the strikes, Qatar temporarily halted ceasefire negotiations, with Sheikh Al Thani stating that Qatar was “reassessing” its mediation role earlier this month.
Yet, ceasefire talks resumed in Sharm el-Sheikh shortly thereafter, concluding on October 9th - two years after the beginning of Israel’s current war in Gaza.
Despite early speculations that Qatar would relinquish its mediator position after the strike, Qatar, Türkiye and Egypt participated in the negotiation of the October 9th ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, with Qatar continuing to play a crucial mediation role in the ceasefire plan put forward by President Trump.
The first stage of the ceasefire is set to be followed by further negotiations over the details of the two remaining phases, which Israel and Hamas have yet to agree on.
Qatar will have an instrumental role to play in negotiating the next stages of this multi-phases peace deal, with Doha also expected to potentially play a role in developing a framework for the post-conflict governance of Gaza, as Hamas is set to step down.
While the September Israeli strikes on Doha severely challenged Qatar’s mediator role in the Gaza peace process, Qatar appears to have so far maintained its influential role in the Gulf, in the Middle-East, and on the international stage.
On October 11, three employees of Qatar’s top government body, the Amiri Diwan, and members of the country’s negotiating delegation, were killed in a car crash near Sharm el-Sheikh.
While Qatar’s embassy in Cairo expressed its “deepest sorrow” over the accident, it does not appear that this incident will impact Qatar’s mediation efforts during the next phases of the ceasefire agreement.