Egypt’s FM heads to Qatar ahead of emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Doha strike

CAIRO – 13 September 2025: Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty traveled to Qatar on Saturday to participate in the preparatory ministerial meeting ahead of the extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit.

Arab and Muslim leaders are set to convene in Doha on Monday to address the recent Israeli strike on the Qatari capital.

On Tuesday, Israel launched a targeted attack on Hamas leadership in Doha, killing six individuals: five Palestinians and one member of the Qatari security forces, in what marks an unprecedented assault on a nation that has long played a mediating role between Hamas and Israel in Gaza ceasefire negotiations.

Israeli fighter jets reportedly attempted to eliminate members of the Hamas negotiating team, including the movement’s leader in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, as they gathered to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire deal.

Qatar condemned the strike as an act of “state terror,” carried out by “barbaric” Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani warned the attack sends “a clear message to the entire region: there is a rogue actor engaging in constant political thuggery and violating the sovereignty of states.”

The United Nations Security Council members, including the United States—which stated it had no prior knowledge of the Israeli operation against its key Gulf ally—issued a joint statement condemning the attack during an emergency session held on Thursday.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN issued a stark ultimatum to Qatar during the session to “either condemn Hamas, expel Hamas, bring Hamas to justice, or Israel will.”

Egypt, Qatar, and the US have been jointly mediating between Hamas and Israel in hopes of halting the Israeli war, which has so far killed nearly 65,000 Palestinian lives in Gaza, home to 2.2 million people, and plunged the enclave into famine.

However, the Israeli airstrike on Doha has severely disrupted these mediation efforts, casting serious doubt over the future of the negotiations.