This week’s dramatic Israeli air strike in Doha apparently failed to eliminate the Hamas senior leadership abroad, who were gathered to discuss the latest US ceasefire proposal to end the Gaza war.
It remains to be seen what impact the event will have on Gaza ceasefire efforts and the fate of the 48 hostages in captivity, now for more than 700 days, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Qatar’s future mediating role may become clearer after the emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Doha on Sunday. The fear is that without Qatari pressure on Hamas, the prospects for an end to the war will diminish further.
There was much speculation around the world that the Israeli air strike was designed to torpedo ceasefire efforts.
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Israeli officials argued that the leadership gathered in Doha represented the hardline, intransigent faction in Hamas that had effectively blocked a ceasefire agreement and their elimination could have paved the way for more moderate leaders to emerge and a possible breakthrough. But the air strike was always a high-stakes gamble.
As Israel’s security cabinet convened on Friday to discuss the way forward after the Doha debacle, Gadi Eisenkot, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff and former Knesset member, warned that an Israeli takeover of Gaza City would likely lead to an irreversible “abandonment of hostages”, while it would also “endanger soldiers” – all for prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political interests.
Eisenkot, who lost his son and a nephew in the Gaza fighting, said Netanyahu was “acting in complete contradiction to the recommendation of every defence establishment leader”.
The already desperate situation of the hostages still alive may now be even more perilous following the Doha attack.
[ Qatar walks a diplomatic tightrope as Middle East conflict intensifiesOpens in new window ]
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes killed at least 40 Palestinians on Friday, local health authorities said, most of them in Gaza City where many residents are staying put despite Israeli evacuation orders because they have nowhere safe to go.
The military assault on Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people, mostly civilians, amid a hunger crisis and a wider humanitarian disaster, reducing much of the enclave to rubble.
The Doha attack, even if it had been successful, certainly doesn’t bring the longest war in Israel’s history any closer to an end. Tens of thousands of extra soldiers have been drafted to the front where the military buildup is now nearing completion, as the troops await the orders for the attack on the whole of Gaza City.
[ Gaza’s children slide towards starvation as emergency treatments dwindleOpens in new window ]
