On Monday, September 15, 2025, the city of Doha became the focal point for a rare show of unity among Arab and Islamic leaders, as delegations from across the region gathered for an emergency summit. The immediate catalyst: an Israeli attack just days earlier, on September 9, that targeted members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas living in Qatar. According to Hamas, five of its members were killed in the strike, though its leadership remained unharmed—a detail that would become central to the heated diplomatic fallout that followed.
The summit, convened jointly by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, was more than a symbolic gesture. It sent a clear message, as Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit told Asharq al-Awsat: "Qatar is not alone … and Arab and Islamic states stand by it." The gathering began with an urgent meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday, September 14, to hammer out a draft resolution. This document, seen by Reuters, condemned what it called "the brutal Israeli attack on Qatar" and warned that Israel’s ongoing "hostile acts—including genocide, ethnic cleansing, starvation, siege, and colonizing activities—threaten prospects of peace and coexistence in the region."
The language of the draft resolution was unambiguous. It argued that such actions imperil "everything that has been achieved on the path of normalizing ties with Israel, including current agreements and future ones." This was a pointed reference to the Abraham Accords, which in 2020 saw the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Arab states normalize relations with Israel, breaking decades of regional precedent. But the events of the past week have thrown those agreements into sharp relief, as the UAE—normally a close U.S. and Israeli ally—summoned the deputy Israeli ambassador on September 12 to express outrage over the attack and subsequent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which it described as hostile.
The UAE’s statement was unequivocal: Qatar’s stability, it said, is "an inseparable part of the security and stability of the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council," which includes Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials, for their part, have repeatedly stated that normalization with Israel is off the table without the creation of a Palestinian state. The diplomatic temperature in the Gulf has rarely felt so high.
At the heart of the crisis is the question of Hamas’s presence in Qatar. Israel, for its part, has made no secret of its intention to pressure Doha. On Wednesday, September 10, Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a stark warning, demanding that Qatar either expel Hamas officials or "bring them to justice, because if you don’t, we will." Then, on Saturday, September 13, he doubled down, stating that removing Hamas leaders from Qatar would "remove the main obstacle to releasing hostages still held by the group in Gaza and ending the war that began with the militant group’s October 7, 2023 attacks."
Israel’s campaign in Gaza, launched in response to that bloody October 7 attack—which left 1,200 dead and 251 hostages captured according to Israeli figures—has, according to local authorities, killed over 64,000 people in the nearly two years since. Israel has faced widespread accusations of genocide, including from the world’s largest group of genocide scholars, but Israeli officials strongly reject this, insisting they are acting in self-defense.
Qatar, meanwhile, has accused Israel of sabotaging peace efforts and labeled Netanyahu’s policies as "state terrorism." The Qatari government’s anger is not just diplomatic: a member of Qatar’s internal security forces was among those killed in the September 9 strike. Despite this, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani was resolute, telling the press on September 14 that Israeli actions would not deter Doha’s mediation efforts. "Israel’s actions will not stop Doha’s mediation efforts with Egypt and the United States," he said, as reported by Reuters and the Australian Associated Press.
Qatar’s role as a mediator is not new. For months, it has worked closely with the United States and Egypt to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and negotiate the release of the remaining 48 hostages still held by Hamas. But after the attack, the stakes have risen sharply, with both the credibility of Qatar as a peace broker and the wider regional balance hanging in the balance.
International reactions have been swift. U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration brokered the Abraham Accords and who has often described Qatar as a "close ally," signaled his unhappiness with the Israeli strike. Trump told Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani that "such a thing will not happen again on their soil," while still maintaining that eliminating Hamas was "a worthy goal." As Reuters and Australian Associated Press reported, Trump’s remarks underscored the delicate balancing act facing Washington: supporting Israel’s security while also relying on Qatar to mediate a potential end to the conflict.
That balancing act is mirrored throughout the Gulf. The UAE, which had been the most prominent Arab state to normalize relations with Israel, now finds itself caught between its new ally and longstanding regional loyalties. The tension is palpable: the diplomatic protest lodged against Israel, the strong statements about Gulf security, and the conspicuous show of support for Qatar all point to a region at a crossroads.
As the summit unfolded, leaders from across the Arab and Islamic world echoed similar warnings. The draft resolution put before the summit cautioned that Israel’s actions threaten not just the fragile path to normalization, but the very prospects for peace and coexistence in the region. The message was clear: continued "hostile acts" by Israel could unravel years of painstaking diplomatic progress.
For Israel, the calculus is equally complex. Netanyahu’s government, facing intense domestic and international scrutiny, insists that the presence of Hamas leaders in Qatar is a direct impediment to resolving the hostage crisis and ending the war in Gaza. Yet Israel’s aggressive posture risks alienating the very Arab states it has sought to bring into its diplomatic fold.
Meanwhile, for Qatar, the events of the past week have been a test of both resilience and diplomatic skill. The loss of its security officer, the pressure from Israel, and the expectations of its Arab and Islamic neighbors all weigh heavily. But as the summit made clear, Qatar is not standing alone. The region, for now at least, has closed ranks in its defense.
In the end, the Doha summit may be remembered as a turning point—a moment when the region’s leaders, faced with a new crisis, reaffirmed old alliances and drew new lines in the sand. Whether this unity holds, and whether it can translate into real progress for peace, remains to be seen. For now, the world watches as Qatar, and the broader Middle East, navigate the aftermath of a strike that has shaken the region to its core.