Category World News

Mourners gathered in Qatar’s capital Doha to pray for six victims of Israel’s attack, including a 22-year-old policeman. The strike has been described as unprecedented for the Gulf.

Israel’s unprecedented attack on Qatar has shaken the country’s image as a safe haven for travellers, diplomats and journalists.

In this episode of Between Us, Al Jazeera’s Virginia Pietromarchi describes hearing the explosions from her window, and following the stench of smoke to the scene of the deadly air strike in the heart of Doha.

And so Israel has struck again.

On Tuesday, the Middle East’s favourite perennial aggressor launched missiles against the Qatari capital of Doha, targeting Hamas leaders involved in negotiations surrounding a proposal from the United States for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli genocide of Palestinians has officially killed more than 64,000 people in less than two years.

To be sure, Israel has never been a fan of ceasefires – even ones proposed by the reigning global hegemon and most devout backer of Israeli atrocities. After all, the state’s very existence is predicated on wiping out Palestinians and engaging in unceasing belligerence.

And while anyone harbouring an iota of common sense will have long regarded Israel as a rogue state, the unprecedented attack on Qatar appears to have opened some international eyes with regard to just how out of control the Israeli government actually is.

For instance, world powers like Britain, France, and India – which have to varying degrees enabled the genocide in Gaza, among other acts of terror by the Israeli military across the region – have managed to muster uncharacteristic condemnation following the Doha strike.

This is not to imply, of course, that targeting Hamas leaders in a country that happens to host the largest US military base in the Middle East is somehow more morally appalling than slaughtering tens of thousands of people in Gaza, most of them women and children.

It is simply to observe that even apologists for Israel’s genocidal recklessness seem to have drawn a new red line – which is that the Israelis can’t simply go around bombing people and places as they see fit.

Following the strike on Doha, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt announced that “unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals”.

Lest we rush to accord any sense of logic or reason to the current White House, Leavitt went on to add the disclaimer: “However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.”

For his part, US President Donald Trump has now “assured” the Qataris that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil”, in Leavitt’s words.

And yet Qatar would be forgiven for feeling somewhat less than “assured”, given that it has already been made quite clear that Trump has forfeited control over what Israel does or does not do on other people’s soil.

As a testament to this reality, Israel’s aptly named Defence Minister Israel Katz took to social media on Wednesday to warn that “Israel’s long arm will act against its enemies anywhere. There is no place where they can hide.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has meanwhile explicitly threatened Qatar, suggesting that this may not be the last the emirate sees of Israeli missiles: “I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice – because if you don’t, we will.”

As usual, then, the country with the present monopoly on regional terrorism – not to mention nearly eight decades of Israeli ethnic cleansing, dispossession, and massacres of Palestinians – has taken the liberty of deciding whom to assign the role of “terrorists” and then attack.

Considering Israel’s utterly mendacious definition of “terrorism”, it’s not only Qatar that needs to worry. As Netanyahu himself said, “all nations who harbour terrorists” are eligible for Israel’s version of “justice”, which in the end generally amounts to war crimes and wanton violations of international law.

As Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday, Israel had conducted military attacks on no fewer than six countries in the past 72 hours alone. In addition to Palestine and Qatar, the “soil” of Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen had also been graced with Israel’s penchant for destruction.

Now, it’s anyone’s guess as to who might be safe from Israel’s “long arm” – but the possibilities are few and far between. Decades ago, the Israeli spy agency Mossad had already shown itself to be perfectly comfortable with assassinating Palestinians on European soil. And now that there’s a full-blown genocide on in Gaza, the more “terrorists” that can be detected abroad, the better for Israel in terms of distracting from and validating its blood-drenched operations.

Israel may currently pride itself on the total impunity it enjoys, and its ability to wreak devastating havoc at will. But while it remains to be seen what other diabolical manoeuvres the “long arm” has up its sleeve, Netanyahu’s effective declaration of war on the world should at least serve as a wake-up call to those still wooed by the lethal oxymoron of Israeli “justice.”

Belarus has released 52 prisoners following mediation by the United States, which has promised to grant Minsk sanctions relief.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Thursday that the prisoners, along with the US delegation, had crossed into Lithuania.

“No man left behind! 52 prisoners safely crossed the Lithuanian border from Belarus today, leaving behind barbed wire, barred windows and constant fear,” he wrote on X.

US President Donald Trump had called on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to release detainees whom the US leader has described as “hostages”. Belarus later confirmed their release.

In return for Lukashenko’s gesture, Washington will grant sanctions relief to Belarus’s national airline Belavia, allowing it to service and buy components for its fleet, which includes Boeing aircraft, the US embassy spokesperson in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius said.

Sanctions relief

It was the biggest batch of prisoners yet pardoned by Lukashenko, who is seeking to repair relations with the United States after years of isolation and sanctions on his former Soviet state.

But it was far short of the 1,300 or 1,400 prisoners whose release Trump had called for in a conversation with Lukashenko last month, as well as in subsequent social media posts.

Those released include Ihar Losik, 33, a journalist sentenced in 2021 to 15 years in a penal colony on charges of inciting hatred and organising riots, the Belarus affairs section of the US embassy in Vilnius said.

The embassy could not immediately confirm whether prominent critics of Lukashenko’s decades-old rule, such as human rights campaigner Ales Bialiatski, co-winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, were among those released.

Belarusian veteran dissident Mikola Statkevich was among the 52 political prisoners, according to rights group Vyasna.

“Among those released today is Mikola Statkevich,” it said on Telegram, adding that the 2010 presidential candidate had been sentenced to 14 years following the protests after the contested presidential elections of 2020.

EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that an EU staff member was among the released prisoners, thanking “US partners for their efforts”.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, leader of the exiled Belarus opposition whose husband, Siarhei, was released from jail in June, said Thursday’s release covered only 4 percent of those designated as political prisoners, and did not signal any real change of policy by Lukashenko.

“We welcome their release, but in essence, this is a trade in human lives – people who should never have been imprisoned in the first place,” Tsikhanouskaya said in a statement released to the Reuters news agency in which she urged the European Union to maintain sanctions on Belarus until democracy is established.

US envoy John Coale, who has been involved in the negotiations with Lukashenko, said he hoped for the release within a short time of all of the 1,400 Belarusian prisoners that Trump has described as “hostages”.

“Our mission is to get them all out now,” Coale told Reuters. “Eventually, hopefully within a short period of time everybody will be out,” he said.

‘A global deal’

Belarus’s state news agency BelTA said those released included 14 foreign nationals – from Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, France, the United Kingdom and Germany.

BelTA quoted Coale, the US deputy envoy for Ukraine, who headed the US delegation, as saying Trump had told Lukashenko that Washington wants to reopen its embassy in Minsk.

Coale had earlier passed a letter from Trump in English to Lukashenko, signed “Donald”, BelTA showed. The fact that Trump had signed the letter simply “Donald” was “a rare act of personal friendship”, it quoted Coale as saying.

“If Donald insists that he is ready to take in all these released prisoners, God bless you, let’s try to work out a global deal, as Mr Trump likes to say, a big deal,” said Lukashenko, who praised the US leader for seeking a peace deal in Ukraine.

“Our main task is to stand with Trump and help him in his mission to establish peace,” BelTA later quoted Lukashenko as saying, referencing Trump’s assertion that he has resolved six or seven world conflicts.

Lukashenko has led Belarus through more than three decades of authoritarian rule. He said as recently as August 22 that he was not prepared to release “bandits” who might “wage war” against the state.

Trump has said he plans to meet Lukashenko, long treated as a pariah by the West, and described him as a “very respected man, strong person, strong leader”.

The prisoners were released a day after Poland shot down what it said were Russian drones over its territory, and on the eve of joint military exercises involving Russia and Belarus.