September 9th, 2025 –
It is with shock and outrage that we received the news of Israel’s air force strike in Doha today, targeting Hamas leaders present in Qatar for negotiations designed to reach a hostage exchange deal and an end to the military conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. We are also deeply concerned by Qatar’s response to suspend ceasefire negotiations in the wake of Israel’s attack.
This strike not only violates international law, but puts at grave risk the negotiations to save the lives of Israeli hostages, and return home those Palestinians from Gaza who are being held without charge in Israeli prisons, as well as the innumerable civilian lives that would be saved by securing a diplomatic end to the grave violence in Gaza.
Partners’ Board President Professor Paul Scham said, “With this strike on a nation it has dealt with, albeit unofficially, for many years, Israel has once again placed itself outside settled international law and norms. This moment brings to mind another when I was living in Israel in 1997: when the Netanyahu-ordered botched assassination of Khalid Meshaal (who may have been killed in the current strike) nearly destroyed the new peace with Jordan. This new strike, reportedly with President Trump’s blessing, will likewise seriously threaten Israel’s already endangered rapprochement with the Arab world, which has been led by the Gulf States, and further damage Israel’s growing exclusion from the international community. Netanyahu may have relied on Qatar’s historic tension with the UAE to shield Israel, but that won’t prevent the international backlash now descending on him and consequently upon Israel.”
We have been disturbed by ongoing reports of Netanyahu’s attempts to ruin or delay a hostage deal through stalling negotiations and his shifting goalposts, first rejecting a comprehensive deal to end the war and then rejecting any partial deal. We fear this strike by the Israeli air force manifests that same dynamic through military violence.
Partners’ Executive Director Rabbi Margo Hughes-Robinson said, “Our outrage today is not rooted in any love lost for Hamas leadership – who cannot remain in power in any negotiated ceasefire and end to this war – but rather a deep concern for the degradation of international norms of conflict and for the civilian lives put at risk by this strike. It appears that Netanyahu now seeks to literally torpedo the deal negotiation process, rather than merely stalling this urgent conversation. Our hearts are with the hostage families, and the Palestinian and Israeli civilians in the region who are all put at greater risk by this unlawful strike. This war will only end through a negotiated permanent ceasefire, and must include a full hostage exchange deal and the immediate surging of aid to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This must not be the end of negotiations.”
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