Qatar is conditioning its continued role as a mediator in ceasefire and hostage deal talks between Israel and Hamas on a public Israeli apology for the recent strike targeting the leaders of the terror group while they were meeting in Doha, the Axios news outlet reported on Saturday.
Citing sources familiar with the talks, the news outlet reported that the demand, put forward by Qatari emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, was raised during US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s talks this week in Jerusalem and Doha, as well during US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting in London with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
Although Doha expects Israel to apologize if it wishes to move forward with negotiations, the sources noted that it will be willing to show some flexibility on the wording of the apology, given that the matter is politically sensitive for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel’s unprecedented strike on Doha on September 9 had targeted top Hamas officials while they were meeting to discuss a US-sponsored proposal for a hostage release deal and ceasefire in Gaza.
Six people, including a Qatari officer, were killed in the strike, but all of the terror group’s senior leaders were believed to have survived.
Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political leadership since 2012, but is also a key US ally and hosts the largest US military base in the region.
It has been the main mediator — along with the US and Egypt — in long-running negotiations for the release of hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and a post-war plan for the Strip.
Israel’s attempt to kill Hamas’ political leaders prompted outrage from Qatar, as well as international condemnation, but a defiant Netanyahu warned Doha to either expel Hamas officials or “bring them to justice, because if you don’t, we will.”
Since then, however, an unnamed senior Israeli official told Axios, Netanyahu has realized that he miscalculated and underestimated the amount of fallout that the strike would cause.
According to the report, Qatar may not require Netanyahu to apologize for Israel striking Hamas leaders, but rather for inadvertently killing a Qatari security officer. Israel would also be expected to commit to not violating Qatar’s sovereignty again in the future, Axios added.
The report comes amid last-ditch efforts to revive the ceasefire and hostage deal negotiations, which were already at an impasse prior to the strike on Hamas officials in Doha.
Ahead of the strike, however, the US had reportedly put forward a proposal involving the release of all hostages on the first day of a truce and, if subsequent talks bear fruit, the end of the war in Gaza. Hamas said they were discussing the offer when the airstrike was carried out.
The terror group said last month, after rejecting previous offers for a phased hostage-truce deal, that it had accepted a US proposal for a partial deal that Israel had sought for several months.
However, the development came after Jerusalem had already changed its position, declaring it would no longer accept a phased deal and would only negotiate for the release of all the hostages at once.
The terror group has said it is willing to end the war, but has not accepted Israel’s conditions, which include the release of the hostages, Hamas’s disarmament, the demilitarization of Gaza and a new government for the Strip that includes neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.