Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani called Israel’s strike on Doha on Tuesday a “state terror”, adding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “killed any hope” for the hostages remaining in Gaza.

 

“I think that what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” Al-Thani said in an exclusive interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson. “I was meeting one of the hostages’ families the morning of the attack. They are counting on this [ceasefire] mediation, they have no other hope for that.”

 

“I have no words to express how enraged we are from such an action … this is state terror,” Al Thani told CNN. “We are betrayed.”

 

Al-Thani said he could not predict what Hamas’ response to the latest US principles for a ceasefire would have been had Israel not struck Doha on Tuesday, but said that he believed that Israel and Hamas “are going to run out of chances” to secure a ceasefire. 

 

“I’ve been rethinking, even about the entire process for the last few weeks, that Netanyahu was just wasting our time,” Al-Thani said. “He wasn’t serious about anything,” he added, as he dismissed recent talks as “meaningless.” 

 

Al-Thani added the Qataris are “reassessing everything” around their involvement in any future ceasefire talks, and added they are in a “very detailed conversation” with the US government on how to proceed. 

 

He said he hopes there will be a “collective response” from regional allies that “deters Israel from continuing this bullying.”

 

When asked about the fate of Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya, Al-Thani said: “Until now … there is no official declaration.”