Israel’s strike on Doha shattered the illusion that Hamas’s leaders could hide safely behind Gulf skylines. But a look further back shows this immunity had gaps.
The Mossad’s botched 1997 attempt to kill Khaled Meshaal in Jordan and the 2010 assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai had already shown Israel’s long arm. However, what is striking is not Israel’s reach or boldness, but the folly of Arab states that continue to shelter and facilitate a movement that has brought them nothing but ruin. Hamas has exported conflict and invited chaos into these states. The correct lesson for Arab states to learn from the Doha airstrike is that none of them should welcome Hamas onto their soil.
A course correction can take the form of expelling Hamas and delegitimizing it.
Jordan previously had hosted Hamas since 1992, using the group as a tool to antagonize Amman’s long-time rival Yasser Arafat. During its time in Jordan, Hamas exploited its sanctuary to facilitate terror operations in Israel. However, Amman’s calculus shifted after Israel’s failed assassination attempt on Meshaal. Harboring Hamas brought more danger than benefit, and two years later, the Kingdom cracked down on the group, closed its offices and expelled its leaders.
Nevertheless, Jordan still tolerates public demonstrations in Hamas’s favor; Egypt has taken a similar approach. Despite its bitter clashes with the group during the peak of the Sinai insurgency between 2013 and 2017, Cairo has accommodated Hamas delegations throughout the years and ignored weapons smuggling into Gaza.
Worse are the Arab states that provide Hamas with political and logistical havens. Qatar is the clearest example. Doha has hosted the group’s leaders, including those who planned the October 7 atrocities like Khalil al-Hayya. Hamas has used Qatar as a logistical hub for coordination, planning and financing. Prior to October 7, Doha had been providing roughly $30 million per month to the Hamas regime in Gaza.
Lebanon is no different. Beirut has long provided shelter to Hamas leaders, and since October 7, Israeli strikes have repeatedly targeted them on Lebanese soil, including one that eliminated Hamas’s deputy leader, Saleh al-Arouri. However, Lebanon has shown no sign of moving to expel Hamas’s leadership.
Arab states are unlikely to acknowledge that Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for the current devastation. The wave of condemnation that followed the strike shows that many in the region continue to view Israel as the destabilizing force. But this narrative is challenged by the simple fact that Hamas itself seeks an endless war that entails the destruction of the Jewish State.
It was Hamas that started this war, and it is Hamas that refuses to end it. Its fighters are no different from its external leadership. In Gaza, they exploit civilians as human shields, and externally, they use Arab capitals as political shields to protect themselves from Israeli attacks. Arab states must recognize that isolating and expelling Hamas would eliminate the need for Israeli strikes on Hamas offices within their borders.
The most significant objection these Arab states will raise is predictable: the fear of domestic unrest if they abandon Hamas. However, Arab leaders should remind their people that breaking with Hamas is both in their interest and that of the Palestinians, to whom Hamas has brought far greater misery.
In private, Arab leaders are much more candid about the necessity of getting rid of Hamas. Shortly after October 7, the veteran diplomat and peace negotiator Dennis Ross observed, “Over the past two weeks, when I talked to Arab officials throughout the region whom I have long known, every single one told me that Hamas must be destroyed in Gaza. They made clear that if their local populations perceive Hamas as winning, it will validate the group’s ideology of rejection … and put their own governments on the defensive.”
Encouragingly, Qatar’s prime minister has now signaled that the emirate will reconsider Hamas’s presence in the country. While Doha has made similar pledges in the past without following through, this moment presents an opportunity for the U.S. to hold it accountable.
The U.S. should push its Arab partners to bar Hamas from establishing any presence within their borders, whether through offices or political activity. Isolating Hamas regionally can both delegitimize the movement in Arab eyes and reinforce the reality that it is the source of instability in the region.
Ahmad Sharawi is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where he focuses on Middle East affairs and the Levant.