Qatar hosts top diplomats before major summit on Israel’s attack in Doha targeting Hamas leaders

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar’s prime minister denounced Israel on Sunday as foreign ministers from Arab and Muslim nations met to discuss a possible unified response to Israel’s attack on Doha targeting the leadership of the militant group Hamas.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s foreign minister, made the comments ahead of a meeting Monday of leaders from those nations.

Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar remained committed to working with Egypt and the United States to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that’s devastated the Gaza Strip after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. However, he stressed the time had come for consequences to Israel’s attacks in the wider Middle East amid the conflict.

“It is time for the international community to stop applying double standards and punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed,” Sheikh Mohammed said in footage later released by Qatar’s government from the closed-door meeting.

There was no immediate response from Israel, which is hosting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this weekend.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night again defended the strike.

“The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza,” he wrote on the social platform X. “They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war. Getting rid of them would rid the main obstacle to releasing all our hostages and ending the war.”