Daily Trust Editorial, Tuesday September 16, 2025
Israel’s attack on Doha, the capital of Qatar, on September 9, 2025, aimed to eliminate Hamas leadership; however, its failure to achieve this objective appears to have backfired, straining relations with both Qatar and the United States. This incident further illustrates that no country is safe from the aggressive tactics Israel is employing against both adversaries and allies.
Qatar has established itself as a key ally of the United States in the region and has proven more effective in securing the return of Israeli hostages than Israel’s 23 months of bombardment of Gaza has achieved.
Qatar successfully negotiated two previous ceasefires that resulted in the release of 148 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for thousands of Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), despite extensive destruction in Gaza and the deaths of thousands of women and children, have only managed to rescue eight hostages alive and retrieve the bodies of 51 others.
The September 9 attack exemplifies Israel’s hard-line approach to the conflict, seemingly designed to achieve “total victory” at the expense of genocidal acts and blatant violations of international laws and conventions.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel and the IDF have conducted indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, including bombings of densely populated civilian areas such as hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and residential neighbourhoods, resulting in high civilian casualties. Airstrikes have destroyed multiple protected locations without evident military necessity, clearly contravening international law. Furthermore, large munitions have been used against residential buildings sheltering hundreds, causing mass casualties.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to pursue this reckless course of action to appease the hard-line right-wing members of his party and preserve his political career, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has formally accused him of war crimes in connection with Israeli military actions in Gaza.
On 21 November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, citing starvation as a method of warfare, intentional targeting of civilians, murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts as war crimes and crimes against humanity. This warrant obligates signatory countries such as the UK and France to arrest Netanyahu should he find himself in those nations.
While the Israeli response has been to label the accusations as “absurd” and “anti-Semitic,” the actions of the country, including its recent attacks on Qatar— which is mediating and hosting peace talks between Israel and Hamas—only confirmed the Israeli government’s wilful disregard for international law and its attempts to undermine all peace negotiations, as well as Netanyahu’s determination to solidify his legacy of genocide and warmongering.
Israel’s airstrike targeted a residential compound in Doha’s West Bay Lagoon neighbourhood, where senior Hamas leaders were convening to discuss a U.S. ceasefire proposal. The failure of the attack to eliminate Hamas leadership has severely undermined Netanyahu’s claims of achieving “total victory” over Hamas, as it resulted in the deaths of only five Hamas members and a Qatari security personnel member.
The brazen nature of Israel’s strike on a country with which it was not at war, coupled with its audacious and unapologetic acceptance of responsibility for the attack, constitutes yet another flagrant disregard for sovereign territories. This incident follows well-documented patterns, including Israel’s attack on Iran, just as the country was preparing to resume nuclear negotiations with the UN. In both cases, one of Israel’s primary targets was Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator.
Israel has conducted a series of attacks on other sovereign territories, including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and most recently Qatar. It appears that Netanyahu’s objective is not peace but the perpetuation of conflict by eliminating non-combatants who are working towards bringing peace to the negotiating table.
The latest attack against the sovereign nation of Qatar has elicited strong regional condemnation and threats of downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel. However, it is clear that Netanyahu’s hardliners will continue to demand violence as long as the country receives unconditional support from its chief sponsors, the US and the UK. These nations have continued to supply arms to Israel despite its documented genocidal actions, while maintaining a false moral stance by refusing to sell arms to countries like Nigeria, citing human rights abuses by the Nigerian military in its fight against Boko Haram.
Although US President Donald Trump expressed disappointment with Israel over the attack on Doha, he quickly reiterated his country’s unconditional support for Israel, even claiming that the US had advance knowledge of the attack and warned the Qatari government about it. The Qatari government, however, denied receiving any advance warning from the US.
The danger in President Trump’s rhetoric and his consistent attempts to defend indefensible Israeli aggressions is that it risks undermining mediation efforts in the region and continues to embolden Israel’s disregard for international conventions established to prevent the chaos the world experienced during WWII.
While condemnations of this recent aggression have been strong, Daily Trust believes that the world must go beyond merely labelling this action as “state terrorism” and take concrete measures to ensure global peace. Key Israeli allies, such as the US and the UK, must do more, including withholding support, funding, and military aid, to bring Israel into compliance. Peace cannot be achieved by justifying the criminal actions of some parties while others are swiftly sanctioned and boycotted for similar behaviour.