Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari responded to criticism directed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Doha's efforts in the course of negotiations and his demand that it pressure Hamas to release more Israelis, stressing that he is fleeing from his political crises in order to prolong the war.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majid Al-Ansari said: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fleeing from his political crises in order to prolong the war on the Gaza Strip.”
Al-Ansari added in a statement on Monday that Netanyahu is fleeing into “controversies that we will not pay attention to,” calling on him to focus on the path of indirect negotiations with Hamas in a way that serves the security of the region.
Al-Ansari said that the Israeli Prime Minister's recent statements, in which he called on Qatar to pressure Hamas to release prisoners and detainees, "are nothing but a new attempt by him to procrastinate and prolong the war for reasons that have become clear to everyone."
He added: "The Israeli Prime Minister knows very well that Qatar has been committed from day one to mediation efforts and ending the crisis."
He stressed that "the evidence of this is the humanitarian truce that liberated 109 and proved that negotiation and reaching an agreement is the only solution to return them, end the escalation, and ensure the security of the region."
In the same context, Al-Ansari rejected "the empty accusations made by the Israeli Prime Minister regarding Qatari efforts in reconstruction and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza, portraying them as funding the Hamas movement."
He stressed that this aid "was, as he knew, taking place in full coordination with Israel, the United States, Egypt, the United Nations, and all concerned parties."
He stressed that "Qatar is continuing its mediation efforts and not paying attention to the polemics and statements that we can only understand in the context of escaping from the personal political crises of the Israeli Prime Minister."
He added: "We ask him to focus on the course of negotiations in a way that serves the security of the region and ends the ongoing tragedy of the continuation of the war, instead of issuing such statements whenever that suits his narrow political agenda."
Recently, Netanyahu said, according to a leaked recording broadcast by the Hebrew Channel 12, that he did not thank Qatar publicly, because it “did not put more pressure on Hamas,” describing Qatar’s mediation role in the exchange deal with Hamas as “problematic.”
Qatar plays a pivotal role, alongside Egypt and the United States, in reaching a serious deal between Hamas and Israel, which includes a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and an exchange of prisoners.
On December 1, a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel ended, concluded with Qatari-Egyptian-American mediation and lasted for 7 days, during which prisoners were exchanged and limited humanitarian aid was brought into the Strip, which is inhabited by about 2.3 million Palestinians.
Israel estimates that there are about “136 prisoners still detained in the Gaza Strip,” according to identical media reports and statements by Israeli officials.
Including praise for the "Al-Aqsa Flood" Israel issues an indictment against Al-Arouri's sister
The Israeli occupation police claimed that Dalal Suleiman, Saleh Al-Arouri’s sister, “transferred money to Hamas during the past two years,” and “in media interviews she praised the movement’s fighters’ attack on Israeli towns and military bases around the Gaza Strip on October 7.”
On Monday, the Israeli occupation police issued an indictment against Dalal Suleiman, the sister of the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri, who was assassinated in an Israeli air strike that targeted a Hamas headquarters in the southern suburb of Beirut on January 2.
On January 14, the occupation authorities arrested Dalal and Fatima Al-Arouri, Saleh Al-Arouri’s sisters, “after searches and vandalism in their homes in Ramallah Governorate and the city of Al-Bireh in the central West Bank,” according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
After Dalal Suleiman was arrested, she was “presented to a military court in the northern West Bank on charges of working for an illegal movement and inciting and supporting a hostile organization,” according to official Israeli sources.
The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation revealed that the occupation police announced, on Monday, “the filing of an indictment against Suleiman (52 years old) after she was arrested.”
The Israeli occupation police claimed in the indictment that “Dalal Suleiman transferred money to Hamas during the past two years,” according to the authority.
The list also included “its praise in media interviews for the movement’s fighters’ attack on Israeli towns and military bases around the Gaza Strip on October 7th,” in reference to the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation carried out by Hamas on the same date.
On January 2, a raid targeted a meeting of Hamas leaders in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, which led to the assassination of the deputy head of the movement’s political bureau, Saleh Al-Arouri, and 6 of his companions.
Al-Arouri is considered one of the founders of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, and in the period extending between 1991 and 1992, he began establishing the first nucleus of the movement’s military apparatus in the occupied West Bank.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that has left tens of thousands of civilians martyred and injured, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe and massive destruction of infrastructure, which led to Tel Aviv appearing before the International Court of Justice on charges of “ Genocide".