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This is the Dailios. Oh now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome to the Daily Os. It's Thursday, the eleventh of September. I'm Lucy Tassel, I'm Sam Kauzlowski. For the first time, Israel has struck Qatar. Israeli PM Benjamin Ntnia, who said the strike on the capital city Doha was targeting Hamas leadership. Hamas has said none of its leaders or ceasepy and negotiating team were killed, but six others were. In today's episode, we'll explain the significance of the strike
and Qatar's relationship in the region. But first a quick word from our sponsor.
Lussi. I'm sure that our listeners could already tell just how much context there is here to unpack. We've spent a lot of time over the past two years at least, trying to put together the pieces of context in explaining events happening in the Middle East. Yeah, for brevity and for the best chance of understanding the key dynamics here, why don't we start with the strike itself? So what do we know about this strike that Israel launched in Qatar?
So this was the first known strike by Israel on Qatar. Israeli fighter planes struck a building in Doha, the capital, on Tuesday afternoon local time. Hamas said the strike targeted members of its ceasefire negotiations team, but that they survived. The group said Israel had killed six people, five of whom were associated with the group, including the son of its chief negotiator and then Israeli PM Benjamin Natnya, who posted soon after the strike saying Israel took quote full
responsibility for the strike. I think to make it clear that this wasn't something that he had the US's help.
With, got it. And so in that statement from Netna who did he give justification for why this strike took place?
Yeah, he said it was quote fully justified because of the seven October attack by Hamas on Israel and by a shooting in Jerusalem earlier.
In the week, and so to kind of bring all of that together, this strike on the negotiating team for Hamas in the country of Katar was fully justified, in Menaohu's words, because of the original seventh of October attack. But perhaps the catalyst most recently is this shooting in Jerusalem. Talk to me about that shooting.
Yeah, so those were both his kind of stated reasons, right, And that shooting happened in Jerusalem earlier this week, to gunman opened fire at a bus stop, killing six people. They were reportedly shot dead by Israeli security forces at the scene, and a third person was later arrested. The shooting was at Ramot Junction, which is a major intersection in an area that the International Court of Justice actually
considers illegally occupied by Israel. Hummas initially didn't take responsibility for that shooting, but then overnight they announced, actually we were responsible, that's what they said.
So this shooting happens in Israel, the second deadliest shooting in Israel since October seven. It elicits a big response from the government. But on Kamas, we know that it's governed Gaza since the two thousands, This isn't new. Yeah, why then were leaders based in Qatar? And can you go a bit deeper on the relationship between Hamas and Katar.
Yeah, So Hamas has had an office in Katar for many years. It houses its political arm and obviously now houses the negotiators between like Hamas's negotiators with Israel. Because Qatar has been hosting and overseeing these negotiations since twenty twenty three. Katari officials say this office was actually set up with the support of the US, which is Israel's closest ally and the aim of this was to set up in direct lines of communication. This is actually a
very common thing that governments do. Governments will communicate with each other or communicate with other groups in sort of a roundabout or in direct way, because even if a group or a country is in opposition to you, you might still have reasons to talk to them. It's any number of.
Well you might meet to in some situations.
Yeah.
Yeah, So that idea of kind of having a country with established frameworks for you to sit down at this almost middle ground or neutral territory is valuable for governments all over the world.
Yeah, or to relay messages. So there's another example that I can give, which is that Australia has recently closed our embassy in the capital of Iran and Tehran. But that doesn't mean that Australia is no longer talking to Iran at all. Obviously there are plenty of Iranian Australians who have ties there. And then the government also like we can talk through other Western nations that still have embassies there, because we might still have reasons to talk
to them. So this is just a very standard practice that even if it's a regime or a group that you might have prescribed as a terrorist organization, you might still have to talk to them. So there's got to be a way for that to happen. The other thing I should touch on is that Qatar has given a lot of funding to Gaza since that office was set up in twenty twelve, and I mean a lot of money.
I'm talking like more than a billion US dollars. A lot of that has gone to the government in Gaza, which is run by Hamas as we know, and a lot of international media outlets, and I truly mean international, I mean international news wires, US media and Israeli media all say Israel's government approved of and facilitated this funding arrangement until October twenty twenty three.
And I think what you're painting is is very complex picture where there's no real benefit in US trying to frame this as a simple you know, SIDEAVERS, side B, with side C in the middle. It is multi layered and intertwined a bit like a very complicated diplomatic spider web. So then explain to me the relationship then, so we understand the relationship between Hamas and Katar, now what's the relationship between Israel and Qatar.
So I've been talking before about indirect relationships, and this is another one of those kind of relationships that's characterized by indirect communication, often in the sense of Qatar's role
as mediators between Hamas and Israel. The groundwork for this role, like the reason why Qatar kind of has taken on this role as an international mediator is that was kind of laid back in the nineteen nineties when Qatar pledged its support for the nineteen ninety three Oslo Accords, which were an early attempt at Arab Israeli peace at the time.
This was significant because in backing calls for there to be a Palestinian state and an Israeli state, Qatar was recognizing legally that the state of Israel.
Exists, one of the first Arab nations to do that. So always been kind of a I like to think about Qatar almost as a bit of a calm head in the neighborhood that can be a bit chaotic.
Yeah. So then in nineteen ninety six, Qatar and Israel normalzed the third legal term their relationship, which basically means they set up diplomatic and economic ties. You might see that word coming up again in future as more countries kind of normalize relations with the new government of Syria, for example. That is something that I expect to see in coming months. In the ensuing years, there's been a lot of ebbs and flows in terms of how strong
that relationship is. The nature of that relationship sometimes it's been very public, sometimes it's been driven by kind of indirect dealings, really depends on the situation. The end result of this is that Qatar has been hosting negotiations between Israel and Hamas since Hamas's attack on Israel, and I mean really since the beginning. So for example, you might remember the deal for a four day pause in November
twenty twenty three. That's when hostages taken by Hamas, primarily women and children, were released in exchange for Palestinians held in jails in Israel, also initially largely and children. And just as a sort of side note, just for clarification's sake, Israeli human rights group Betzalem has found Israeli authorities have over the years detained thousands of Palestinians indefinitely in Israeli
jails without laying charges or without holding a trial. So that's what we're talking about when we say prisoners.
And so Qatar's role in all of that, even in those early days were talking a fortnite after that initial attack by Hamas in Israel, was to be the host and the facilitator of these talks.
Yeah. That had direct impacts like hostages and people who'd been held in prisons getting set free.
And so when you consider the fact that there are still believed to be at least twenty hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza that are alive, Yeah, that are alive, about forty three I think still in possession of the group, you can understand why Katar continues to play a role because these negotiations are ongoing, yeah.
And they have borne some fruit. So that's why kind of two years in Qatar is still a really important part of that negotiation, regardless of what stage it's at.
And so these negotiations have been ongoing in Qatar. There's now been a strike that Israel says it was targeting the team of negotiators from Hamas. We don't know exactly who was killed and where in Doha, But what will happen to the talks then, because I imagine it's going to be hard to kind of pick up and keep going at least in the same location.
Yeah, yeah, I mean the talks had essentially stalled. The latest update was over the weekend, US President Donald Trump saying Israel had accepted the terms of a ceasefire and hostage release deal, telling Hamas it was its last warning to accept. Hamas said it was discussing ideas about the deal. In terms of kind of the intractable nature of these negotiations. Hamas is seeking a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel is seeking Hamas giving up its weapons and releasing
all the remaining hostages. It's hard to see a world location wise where Katar continues hosting these talks. Obviously, there was this Israeli strike that was targeting Hamas, but it still had the impact of literally landing on Katari territory. And you and I were discussing this morning, who would volunteer to be a part of this. Egypt and the
US have been involved in negotiations of those two. The US is part of NATO, the international military block, which binds its members to go to war on each other's behalf if they're attacked. I mean, this is hypothetically. It seems very unlikely that Israel would strike its closest to ally, even if it were targeting Hamas. But I think that would probably rule out the US, just because of that
kind of binding obligation. Sure, but then again, as I said, who would volunteer for the possibility of, after two years of negotiations that you could be fired upon. There's also the possibility that ceasefire negotiations would continue in a location without Hamas present, But that would effectively make them illegitimate.
Which is kind of the conversations that we've been having in the context of Russia and Ukraine. This idea of Donald Trump discussing a ceasefire with Putin without Zelenski there representing Ukraine kind of delegitimizes the hopes of a genuine ceasefire. That sort of lenses now being applied here.
Yeah, and then separately talking to Zelensky without Putin, got it, and then stepping away and being like, Okay, you guys choose a location and then that's been impossible.
And so the necessity of a third party I think is pretty widely agreed upon from all sides. Ye. What I've taken away from this story that I'm trying to work through is trying to understand the nature of a group in Gaza being controlled from outside the territory and how that's all been set up. Is I think that that hasn't been a topic that we've discussed a lot in the two years since, and it's been really brought into the spotlight with this labor strike.
Definitely.
Okay, well, that is a really complex one, Lucy and I feel like we've been saying this for a couple of years now, but we are going to need to kind of understand what happened next. YEA, come back in here and talk our audience through it. So thank you everybody at home and listening on your way to work or at any point in your day for joining us. We're going to be back this evening with your headlines. Until then, have a good day.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Kalkadin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.