Qatar rejects Netanyahu's criticism of Gaza mediation efforts

Israeli leader had said Doha must 'stop playing both sides with its double talk'

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. AP

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Qatar hit out at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday after he criticised Doha's mediation efforts in the Gaza war, with the Gulf state saying he was using “false slogans to justify crimes against innocent civilians”.

On Saturday night, Mr Netanyahu said in a post on X that “the time has come for Qatar to stop playing both sides with its double talk and decide if it's on the side of civilisation or if it's on the side of Hamas barbarism”.

Qatar hosts the political office of Palestinian militants Hamas and helped broker a truce between the group and Israel that came into effect in January. The ceasefire collapsed in mid-March and attempts to reach a new deal have so far failed.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari called Mr Netanyahu's comments “inflammatory” and said they “fall far short of the most basic standards of political and moral responsibility”.

“Portraying the ongoing aggression against Gaza as a defence of 'civilisation' recalls the rhetoric of regimes throughout history that have used false slogans to justify their crimes against innocent civilians,” Mr Al Ansari wrote on X.

He added that 138 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza had been released through mediation and not Israeli military operations, saying these efforts were being “unjustly criticised and targeted”.

He also questioned Mr Netanyahu's assertion that Israel stood “on the side of civilisation”.

“The Palestinian people in Gaza are experiencing one of the worst humanitarian disasters of modern times, from a stifling blockade and systematic starvation, to the deprivation of medicine and shelter, to the use of humanitarian aid as a weapon of political pressure and blackmail. Is this the 'civilisation' they are trying to promote?” Mr Al Ansari said.

Mr Netanyahu has been under pressure from far-right politicians in Israel, without whom he would lose his governing coalition, to press on with the latest Gaza offensive. He has been increasingly strident in his calls to continue the war since fighting restarted in March.

“Israel will win this just war with just means,” he said in his latest post on X.

On Saturday, Israel's public broadcaster Kan 11 said tens of thousands of reservists were being called up ahead of moves to further expand the offensive in Gaza.

Quoting unidentified officials, it said Israel's security cabinet was expected to approve the plan on Sunday.

Since fighting resumed in the enclave on March 18, at least 2,396 people have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, bringing the overall death toll from the war to more than 52,000.

Hamas and other Palestinian militants are still holding 58 hostages, 34 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.

Several thousand Israelis staged a protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday demanding the government secure their freedom.