Qatar ‘asks Hamas leaders to leave within a month’ after US request amid deadlock in Gaza ceasefire talks

Hamas's media chief in Lebanon denies the group received such a request from Doha

Hamas senior official Khaled Meshaal. The militant group has had a political base in Doha since 2012. Reuters

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Qatar has asked Hamas's political leadership to leave the country within a month, acting on a request from the US, two sources told The National on Saturday.

Senior Hamas political bureau members were informed of Doha's decision to expel them earlier this week, the sources said. Qatar has hosted the Palestinian group's leadership since 2012, when Khaled Meshaal – who led Hamas for more than two decades until 2017 and remains a senior official – relocated from Syria to Doha.

Hamas is now considering Iraq, Iran and Algeria as possible alternatives to Qatar, the sources added. Turkey is also under consideration because of the vast business interests the Palestinian group has in the country, said the sources. Hamas already has offices in Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

However, Mahmoud Taha, the head of Hamas's media relations in Lebanon, said the militant group has not received an order from Qatar to leave the country. “Hamas will continue its work from Qatar, and Doha did not ask to stop the movement's work on its territory. Hamas's relations with Qatar are normal,” he said in a statement sent to The National.

Commenting on a US request regarding Hamas, Mr Meshaal and another senior official, Khalil Al Hayya, Mr Taha affirmed that “Hamas will continue its political and military work until the end of the occupation, the release of prisoners, and the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Gaza”.

The decision to expel Hamas comes after months of fruitless negotiations to reach a ceasefire in the war in Gaza and to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas since October 2023. The deadlocked talks have been mediated by the US alongside Qatar and Egypt, two of Washington's closest regional allies.

“The expulsion is the final move by the US and its allies to pressure Hamas into accepting a ceasefire and release the hostages,” said one of the sources. “They have a month to sort out their affairs and leave.”

“After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner,” a senior administration official told The National, adding that Washington had “made it clear” to Doha after the latest rounds of talks collapsed.

The official added that Qatar has played “an invaluable role” in mediation efforts to broker a truce and “was instrumental in securing the release of nearly 200 hostages last year”. However, after Hamas's “repeated refusal” to release more hostages, “their continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable”, the official said.

There was no immediate response from Qatar on the reported expulsion, but Qatari officials have long maintained that Hamas's presence in Doha was contingent on the continuation of the negotiations to end the Gaza war.

Qatar reportedly warned Hamas of possible expulsion during the early days of the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, but the Gulf country had never acted on its threat.

It remains unclear how many Hamas officials are living in Qatar, but the sources said they include top figures such as Mr Al Hayya, Mr Meshaal, Osama Hamdan, Moussa Abu Marzouq and Zaher Jabarin. Hamas's leader Yahya Sinwar was killed in Gaza last month and its veteran political head, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in July in an assassination widely blamed on Israel.

News of the expulsion comes only days after Republican Donald Trump was elected for a second term as US President. He will return to the White House in January.

Qatar made the demand to Hamas leaders about 10 days ago, the official said. Washington has been in touch with Qatar over a date for the closure of the group's political office, and it had told Doha that now was the time, he added.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim meeting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha in October. AFP

Doha has been criticised by US politicians over its ties with Hamas. On Friday, 14 Republican senators wrote a letter to the Department of State asking Washington to immediately freeze the assets of Hamas officials living in Qatar, extradite several senior Hamas officials living there and ask Doha “to end its hospitality to Hamas's senior leadership”.

Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has repeatedly said over the last year that Hamas's office exists in Doha to allow negotiations with the group and that as long as the channel remained useful, the country would allow their presence.

The Gaza war was sparked by a Hamas attack on southern Israel in October last year when about 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 people were taken captive in the enclave. Israel responded with a devastating military campaign that has killed more than 43,500 Palestinians in Gaza and injured more than twice that number, according to the health ministry in the coastal enclave.

The war has also reduced to rubble vast parts of Gaza's built-up areas and caused a humanitarian crisis, with the besieged north of the enclave on the brink of famine as the Israeli military continues operations there for more than a month.