Category World News

Doha, Qatar – Arab and Islamic states have condemned Israel’s “barbaric” attack on Qatar and will support Doha in the measures it will take to safeguard its sovereignty, says Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

“We appreciate the solidarity of brotherly Arab and Islamic countries and friendly countries from the international community that condemned this barbaric Israeli attack,” Mohammed said on Sunday. “It expressed its full support for us and the legitimate legal measures we will take to preserve the sovereignty of our country.”

The Qatari prime minister made the comments as foreign ministers from Arab and Islamic countries convened in Doha before their leaders hold an emergency summit on Monday in response to Israel’s attack last week.

The Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) session opened not with ceremony but with urgency as the delegates came together in a city suddenly thrust into the heart of a regional confrontation.

Israel’s strikes on Tuesday killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer, narrowly missing the negotiation team meeting in Doha as they weighed a United States proposal to end Israel’s genocidal two-year war on Gaza.

“It’s time for the international community to abandon dual standards and to hold Israel accountable for all the crimes it has committed,” Mohammed said at a meeting inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the heart of the city, adding that the attack must be met with “fierce” and “firm” measures.

Delegates from the Arab League and the OIC are collaborating on a joint resolution that will specify concrete measures against Israel. The details of this resolution are expected to be revealed on Monday.

The Qatari prime minister also chided Israel’s continuous derailment of Gaza ceasefire talks, stating: “Israel must know that the continuous genocidal war against the Palestinian people, aiming at forcibly transferring them outside their homeland, cannot succeed, no matter what false justification is provided.”

Members of both the Arab League and OIC pushed for Israel to be held accountable for its attack on Qatar.

“The ongoing state terrorism against the people of the region demands us to draft a resolution for the UN General Assembly to put an end to these practices as well as the violations and crimes against the Palestinian people and push forward for the two-state solution,” OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha said at Sunday’s session.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, meanwhile, stressed the need for a clear message of Arab-Islamic solidarity with Qatar, stating Israel must be brought to account for “evidenced war crimes”, including “killing civilians, starving the population and driving an entire population homeless”.

Summit expected to give ‘strong statement to Netanyahu’

There are expectations that the summit will yield a unified and forceful response to Israel’s attack.

According to Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka, the chief editor of the Gulf Times, the emergency summit will likely result in concrete measures against Israel instead of just strongly worded condemnations.

“It’s been the narrative of the Arab summit that [there are] only statements of condemnation. But I don’t think that’s the case [any more],” al-Mudahka told Al Jazeera.

“I think it will be [the adoption of] certain measure[s] that will give a very strong statement to Netanyahu.”

The Arab and Muslim world is intently awaiting the results of the summit, he added, describing it as a show of solidarity from the region.

The US, meanwhile, remains a strategic partner of Qatar, a relationship that dates back to the 1970s, al-Mudahka explained, adding that Tuesday’s attack is unlikely to change ties between Washington and Doha.

Al-Mudahka additionally hopes there will be an opportunity at the summit to continue pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza despite Israel’s attack on Doha sidelining the negotiations.

“I hope this summit also is a path … to [end] the war in Gaza,” al-Mudahka said.

Erling Haaland struck twice for Manchester City as they cruised to a 3-0 win over Manchester United in English football’s Premier League, giving Pep Guardiola’s side bragging rights in the latest edition of the derby.

Phil Foden also scored for City in his first start of the season on Sunday, heading in Jeremy Doku’s cross in the 18th minute. Doku squeezed brilliantly through United’s defence and had his first cross blocked, but dug out a second that Foden leapt to guide in.

Haaland scored his first of the afternoon in the 53rd minute, when Doku muscled past Lenny Yoro before sliding a pass to the big Norwegian, who chipped the ball over goalkeeper Altay Bayindir.

The 25-year-old, who charged at United’s defence like a bulldozer all day, completed his double in the 68th when the visitors lost the ball. Haaland, lining up at the centre circle, easily outpaced Harry Maguire to Bernardo Silva’s ball forward for another one-on-one with Bayindir.

The match lacked the intrigue of derbies past, with both teams going into the game mid-table after sputtering starts.

City climbed to eighth with their second win from four, while United are at 14th with just one victory.

Haaland almost had a hat-trick, thanks to United’s shambles at the back. He had Bayindir beaten, but missed a sitter to hit the post. Guardiola was already celebrating, but then held his head in disbelief.

The victory capped quite a week for Haaland, who scored five goals on Tuesday when Norway pummelled Moldova 11-1 to maintain their perfect record in men’s World Cup qualifying.

He also scored his 50th goal in his 50th home Premier League game for City. In the competition’s history, only Alan Shearer required fewer home appearances, 47, to hit 50 goals.

He nearly set up Tijjani Reijnders for a fourth City goal late in the game, but Reijnders chipped the ball just wide.

City had six shots on target to United’s two, but Guardiola’s new goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma quickly proved his worth, diving to push away an early shot from Benjamin Sesko and then making a brilliant diving save from a second-half shot by Bryan Mbeumo.

Foden told Sky Sports that he was pleased to score after receiving some criticism this season.

“There’s been a lot of talk, everything I see at the moment is quite negative, but that is the world we live in when you play at the highest level,” he said.

“It’s about reading the comments and trying to react as best as I can and come back to my level.”

He also praised Haaland’s performance.

“A complete performance, especially the way he held up the ball. He did everything today: defending, attacking, running in behind, doing the dirty work,” he said.

Haaland, meanwhile, told Sky Sports that City “needed” that win after a difficult start to the season.

“You could feel it as well from the fans,” Haaland said. “We needed [the win], you could feel a bit extra today, and I am so relieved and so happy that we managed to do this all together.”

United captain Bruno Fernandes said his side should have done much better, but said there were positives from the game.

“The result is very bad and bad on us, but I think there are two ways of looking at this game as the goals could have been avoided. On the ball, we were positive, brave and playing the ball forward,” he said.

“City were smart to get the goals the way they did and have a very good team and very good players.”

Elsewhere in the Premier League on Sunday, Mohamed Salah’s stoppage-time penalty ensured Liverpool maintained their winning start to the season with a 1-0 victory at promoted side Burnley.

With British record signing Alexander Isak forced to wait for his Liverpool debut, having been left out the squad for the trip to Lancashire, the champions struggled to break down a dogged home side in the first half.

After a regroup at the break, the visitors upped the ante in the second half, with Dominik Szoboszlai finally forcing a fine save from Martin Dubravka in the Burnley goal.

Burnley were holding on for a well-earned point with ease, before the ball agonisingly struck substitute Hannibal Mejbri’s arm in the penalty area and Salah slotted the spot kick into the net in the 95th minute to break home hearts.

For almost two years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone out of his way to avoid agreeing to a Gaza ceasefire.

In November 2023, a deal saw the release of 110 captives taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

But a week later, Netanyahu refused to extend the ceasefire, leaving the rest of the captives behind.

Since then, whenever a ceasefire has seemed to be within reach, Netanyahu has shifted the goalposts. In May 2024, Hamas accepted a proposed deal, but Israel denied agreeing and invaded Rafah instead. By September, Netanyahu had introduced a new condition: permanent Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor – the area between Egypt and Gaza – which both Cairo and Hamas rejected.

Later, after pushing the position that only a partial deal would be agreed to, Netanyahu changed the parameters and insisted that Israel would only agree to a deal that would see all the captives released – and not in return for an end to the war.

Even when allies advanced proposals, Netanyahu sidestepped them. Also in May 2024, then-US President Joe Biden announced that Israel had offered a ceasefire plan, but Netanyahu stayed silent, and no deal followed.

When a deal was agreed and implemented, Netanyahu ensured it broke down. In January 2025, under pressure from incoming US President Donald Trump, Netanyahu accepted a phased ceasefire deal that would continue until a final settlement to end the war was agreed. Yet by March, Israel unilaterally violated it, resuming bombardment and blockade.

And last week, as Hamas negotiators met in Doha to discuss a new US-backed proposal, Israel bombed them, effectively sabotaging the talks.

Plates spinning

The Israeli government would insist that deals haven’t been reached because the Palestinian group Hamas has not been an honest broker, and because it will attempt to rearm must be eradicated.

But after the attack in Doha, Einav Zangauker, the mother of Israeli captive Matan Zangauker, who has been held in Gaza for almost two years, was clear about who was to blame.

“Why does the prime minister [Netanyahu] insist on blowing up any deal that comes close to happening? Why?” she asked rhetorically.

Why indeed.

Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. One of the reasons for his success is his ability to keep multiple plates spinning – to juggle different priorities, even if they are sometimes contradictory, without resolving them fully.

Being able to juggle these priorities allows Netanyahu to push away decisions that could lead to him losing support from the public or from his political allies. And in a country like Israel, where parliamentary politics is based on who can keep the biggest coalition, that is vital.

Netanyahu is also facing domestic legal trouble – he is on trial for corruption – and staying in power is most likely his best bet at avoiding prison.

Coming back to the question of a Gaza ceasefire, Netanyahu has a fundamental problem: he is beholden to the messianic far right to prop up his government, and they have made it clear: an end to the war at this stage will see them walk away from the prime minister’s coalition, almost certainly causing it to collapse.

The far right – Israelis like National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – want to push Palestinians out of Gaza and bring in Israeli settlers to live in the land left empty by those ethnically cleansed.

Netanyahu might not be completely averse to that goal, but he also understands the difficulty in achieving it. Even Israel would be stretched militarily if it were to try to conquer and keep the whole of the Gaza Strip, and months or years of high-intensity conflict would cause more dissent from a military that is heavily reliant on calling up thousands of Israelis as reservists.

And, of course, such a brazen attempt at ethnic cleansing would further isolate Israel internationally.

What comes next?

Instead, Netanyahu keeps the plates spinning. He keeps Ben-Gvir and Smotrich on his side by never agreeing to end the war, strings along mediators by sending negotiation teams to discuss proposals he won’t accept, and never fully commits to the military fight that would be necessary to try to completely take Gaza.

He insists that Hamas cannot be allowed to rule Gaza and rejects the Palestinian Authority ruling the enclave, while also saying Israel doesn’t want to control it.

How long can Netanyahu keep this up? There were times when he struggled, and it almost came crashing down.

Trump did not want to take “no” for an answer in January, forcing Netanyahu to agree to a deal that had been on the table for more than six months. That led to Ben-Gvir resigning his government position and Smotrich threatening to resign his if the deal progressed and led to an end to the war.

As previously mentioned, it did not. And Ben-Gvir quickly came back. Trump says contradictory things about ending the war, only to never firmly tell Netanyahu to stop.

The next Israeli elections have to take place before October 2026. Perhaps Netanyahu will be able to present enough wins to the electorate – he can already argue that he has weakened Hamas, defeated Hezbollah, and bombed Iran’s nuclear sites – to get enough support that he is no longer reliant on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich and can end the war on his terms, whatever they may be.

Or perhaps the war continues, potentially with pauses, only for Israel to return to bombing Gaza when it feels the need to.

Alternatively, continuing the war with no end in sight could increase both foreign and domestic opposition, ramping up the pressure on Netanyahu until he is either forced to make a decision on ending the war or faces defeat at the ballot box in 2026.

The Palestinians of Gaza – of whom Israel has killed more than 64,800 – are the ultimate casualties of the dragging out of this war, as well as the Israeli captives still held in Gaza.

US political analyst John Mearsheimer argues that Israel attacked Qatar to preclude any closure to the war on Gaza.