Doha strikes shred pretence of Israeli diplomacy and shock captives’ families

Minutes after Israeli jets fired a dozen missiles at Doha, as Israel’s government and military were prematurely celebrating the attack, the mother of one Hamas captive said she was “trembling with fear”.

“The prime minister has actually assassinated my Matan, sealed his fate,” Einav Zangauker posted on X.

“Whoever decides to deliberately endanger my Matan’s life is murdering him. Why does he insist on blowing up every chance for a deal? This is about my child’s life!!!”

Only two days separated Tuesday’s attack and Hamas saying on Sunday it was ready to “immediately sit at the negotiating table” after receiving the latest US-backed, Qatar-mediated Gaza ceasefire proposal.

Though sources told Middle East Eye that Israel failed to kill any of its primary targets, the strikes nonetheless shredded diplomatic efforts to secure an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the release of Israeli captives.

It is a state of affairs that has left those captives’ families in despair.

On Wednesday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum pressure group called for mass protests in Israel “calling for an immediate end to the war” and the return of the 48 captives in Gaza, around 25 of whom are believed to be alive.

“Yesterday, the people of Israel received further proof that the Netanyahu government is doing everything in its power to torpedo any chance of an agreement to return the abductees,” it said.

And while opposition leader Yair Lapid first welcomed the attack and congratulated the Israeli military, a growing realisation that it had failed to kill its targets and endangered the captives prompted a rowback.

“The Israeli government needs to explain how the [military] operation will not lead to the killing of the hostages, and whether the risk to the hostages' lives was taken into account in the decision to carry out the operation,” he said.

For Yehuda Cohen, whose son Nimrod was seized by Hamas on 7 October 2023, the Doha attack was part of a long history of Netanyahu purposely sinking a potential ceasefire deal.

Any time Israel appears close to a deal, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, both Jewish supremacists, threaten to resign and bring down Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

"If they are quiet, you know that they are getting what they want. Now they are quiet, it means that Netanyahu is following their demands to continue the war," Cohen told MEE.

“Netanyahu is focused on only one thing, and that is his political survival, which depends on his extremist associates in the government.”

Cohen said his first thought when he heard of the attack was that, if successful, Hamas would need to completely rebuild its negotiating team if talks were to continue.

He also feared a conflict with mediator Qatar, with which “right now we have an interest that they be active in the negotiations".

'A regime of Jewish supremacy'

Menachem Klein, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University and former advisor to Israeli peace negotiators, believes Israel has no genuine interest in diplomacy, seeing it only as cover for the use of violence.

“Israel is a genocidal society, it is a society that decided that there is no diplomacy, there is only force,” he told Middle East Eye.

According to Klein, Israel seeks to “reengineer the region by force” at the expense of its neighbours - including Gulf Arab states that have sought to be its allies and partners.

'It's a regime of Jewish supremacy, and it wants to establish Jewish supremacy not only in Palestine, but in the entire region by means of force'

- Menachim Klein, political scientist

“The raison d'etre of this government is Jewish supremacy. It's a regime of Jewish supremacy, and it wants to establish Jewish supremacy not only in Palestine, but in the entire region by means of force,” he said, “as well as against Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank”.

Klein noted that the Doha attack does not just damage relations with Qatar, which, despite having no formal relations with Israel like the UAE or Bahrain, has long acted as a conduit for talks with Hamas and is a major US ally.

He said the strikes harm relations with all Arab countries, “because it basically means that if tomorrow, let's say, the new or old Hamas leadership moves to Cairo, then Israel will bomb Cairo, or Amman if they move there".

"Israel is returning to being the deranged state of the Middle East,” he said.

“The Arab countries thought that through political arrangements they were taming Israel, domesticating Israel, making Israel legitimate in parts of the region,” he added.

“The Arab countries are not ready for Jewish supremacy - they are willing to accept Israel as an equal partner, but not its supremacy.”