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QATAR’S Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is demanding a “collective response” to Israel’s deadly attack on the Qatari capital Doha.
Sheikh Mohammed told US news channel CNN on Wednesday that “there is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region, adding that “the entire Gulf region is at risk.”
He accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading the region into “chaos” and hoped the response from Arab nations would be “something meaningful that deters Israel from continuing this bullying.”
The Qataris plan to host an Arab-Islamic summit on Sunday and Monday, the country’s QNA news agency reported.
Sheikh Mohammed also said that the Israeli strike was aimed at undermining “any chance of peace” in Gaza.
He said: “I think that what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did yesterday — he just killed any hope for those [Israeli] hostages.” Twenty captives are believed to be still alive in Gaza.
Even as there was widespread international condemnation of the attack on Doha, the Israeli prime minister threatened further attacks, saying that “Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will.”
Israel has assassinated many of Hamas’s top military and political leaders in the last two years, such as political leader Yahya Sinwar, military commander Mohammed Deif and political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran’s capital Tehran.
The Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday as they were meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by United States President Donald Trump. But Hamas said its leadership survived the assassination bid.
Qatar says two of its security officers were killed in the attack.
The attack was part of a wider wave of Israeli strikes extending beyond its immediate borders, and marked the sixth country attacked in just 72 hours and the seventh since the start of this year.
On Wednesday, Israel killed 35 people, and wounded more than 130 in an attack on Yemen.
Most of those killed were in the capital Sanaa, where a military headquarters and a fuel station were hit, according to the Yemeni health ministry.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued their bombardment of the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing at least 32 Palestinians, including 20 in Gaza City. The figure includes at least 10 Palestinians killed as they sought humanitarian aid.