On Friday, September 12, 2025, a rare diplomatic rupture unfolded in the Gulf as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) summoned Israel’s deputy ambassador, David Ohad Horsandi, to protest an Israeli airstrike that targeted Hamas leadership in Qatar earlier in the week. The move, confirmed by multiple sources including the UAE's state news agency WAM and the Associated Press, marked a significant escalation in regional tensions and underscored the fragility of recent diplomatic overtures between Israel and several Arab states.
At the heart of the controversy was an Israeli airstrike in Doha, Qatar's capital, on Tuesday, September 9, which killed five members of Hamas and a Qatari security officer. According to Hamas, its top leaders survived the strike, including Khalil al-Hayya, whose son and office manager were among the dead. Al-Hayya attended funeral prayers in Qatar under special security arrangements, though Hamas did not release photos or video of the event, as reported by AP.
The UAE’s response was swift and unusually forceful. Emirati Minister of State for International Cooperation, Reem bint Ebrahim al-Hashimy, personally delivered her government’s condemnation to Horsandi. In a statement carried by WAM and echoed across international outlets, al-Hashimy denounced the Israeli attack as a “blatant and cowardly” act. She described the assault as “an irresponsible escalation that threatens regional and international peace and security.”
Al-Hashimy’s remarks went further, warning that “the continuation of such hostile and provocative rhetoric undermines prospects for stability and pushes the region towards extremely dangerous trajectories, and solidifies a situation that is unacceptable and cannot be overlooked.” Her language, unusually direct for Gulf diplomacy, reflected mounting frustration in Abu Dhabi and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). She also stressed that “Qatar’s security is integral to that of the Gulf Cooperation Council,” a pointed reminder of the region’s interconnected interests and the potential for wider fallout.
This diplomatic protest was particularly notable because it came five years after the UAE and Israel signed a historic recognition deal, normalizing relations as part of the Abraham Accords. Summoning an Israeli diplomat for a reprimand is a rare move, signaling that the UAE’s patience with Israeli military actions in neighboring states—especially those involving GCC members—has limits.
The timing of the UAE’s summoning was no accident. It came just days before an emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic nations scheduled for next week in Qatar to discuss the attack. The incident has galvanized regional actors, with many seeing it as a dangerous precedent for cross-border military strikes and a challenge to the sovereignty of Gulf states.
Israel, for its part, defended the airstrike. The Israeli Embassy in the UAE issued a statement asserting that the operation targeted “senior Hamas leadership who have used Qatar as a base from which to wage war on Israel.” The statement continued: “Israel is committed to defeating terrorism and ending Hamas’ reign of terror, bringing our hostages home and securing a safer future for Israelis and our collective region.” The embassy did not comment on the diplomatic meeting with al-Hashimy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech delivered the day after the strike, took a hard line with Qatar. Addressing Doha, Netanyahu declared, “You either expel them (Hamas) or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will.” He went on to compare Israel’s actions in Doha to the United States’ pursuit of Al-Qaeda following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks—a comparison that did not sit well with Qatari officials.
Qatar quickly and forcefully rejected Netanyahu’s analogy, describing it as “a new, miserable justification for Israel’s treacherous practices” and a reckless violation of its sovereignty. Qatari officials have insisted that their country’s role has been one of mediation, not militancy. Since October 2023, Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, has played a central role in efforts to broker a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza—a conflict that has resulted in the deaths of more than 64,700 Palestinians, according to Qatari and international sources.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister, reinforced his country’s position during a Thursday address to the United Nations Security Council in New York. “Israel is trying to rearrange the region by force,” he said, highlighting what he described as a pattern of aggressive Israeli actions that threaten the established order in the Middle East. He later met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington, part of a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at containing the fallout from the airstrike.
The Israeli strike, its aftermath, and the diplomatic storm it has unleashed come at a particularly sensitive moment for the Gulf. The Abraham Accords, signed in 2020, were hailed as a breakthrough in Arab-Israeli relations, opening the door to cooperation in trade, technology, and security. Yet, as this week’s events demonstrate, normalization has not erased deep-seated suspicions or resolved the underlying conflicts that continue to roil the region.
For the UAE, the episode is a test of its balancing act—maintaining ties with Israel while standing in solidarity with fellow GCC members. The UAE’s decision to publicly rebuke Israel, rather than handle the matter quietly, suggests that the Gulf’s red lines are very much alive. As one Emirati official put it, “The security of one is the security of all.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s justification for the strike—that Hamas uses Qatar as a sanctuary—has not convinced many in the Arab world, where the prevailing view is that such attacks risk dragging the region into wider conflict. The fact that the strike killed a Qatari security officer has only heightened sensitivities.
As the emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic nations looms, all eyes are on Doha and Abu Dhabi. Will this incident mark a turning point in regional diplomacy, or will it be absorbed into the region’s long history of crisis and accommodation? The coming days will offer some answers, but for now, the message from the UAE is clear: attacks on the sovereignty of Gulf states will not go unanswered, no matter how new the diplomatic ties may be.
