The Southern Daily: Sun Degang: Airstrike on Negotiation Table: Where Will Gaza Ceasefire Talks Lead?

On September 9th, Israel carried out a ‘precision strike’ on the capital of Qatar, Doha, targeting the Hamas negotiation delegation. The top Hamas leadership escaped unharmed, but family members and aides of senior Hamas leaders were killed in the attack. Qatar has been actively engaging with various parties to facilitate a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The international community widely believes that this attack has directly undermined the real foundation of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. On the evening of September 10th, the Qatari Foreign Ministry strongly denounced Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s threat to violate Qatar’s national sovereignty again. Interestingly, Qatar is a key ally of the United States in the Middle East. Israel initially claimed the attack was approved by U.S. President Trump, but the U.S. later denied the ‘triple confirmation.’ Trump himself stated via social media that the attack was decided by Netanyahu unilaterally, distancing himself from the incident, and mentioned that the U.S. had informed Qatar prior to the action. However, Qatar pointed out that the U.S. only issued a warning 10 minutes after the attack occurred. This ‘raid’ not only sparked strong protests and condemnations from Qatar and many countries but also further ruptured the fragile diplomatic trust in the Middle East, pushing the already precarious Gaza ceasefire talks to a more dangerous edge. Why did Israel attack Doha? As the thick smoke of the explosion rose over the embassy district in Doha, the Hamas negotiation delegation was present, discussing the Gaza ceasefire proposal put forward by the U.S. The Israeli Defense Forces and Shin Bet issued a statement on September 9th confirming…