Qatar, a U.S. ally, is the regional power best positioned to both influence Hamas and play a mediating role with Israel. Here's what to know.
People walk along a street as a plume of smoke rises in the background during an Israeli strike on the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, as battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement continue.
And now it's playing a key role more than 1,000 miles to the west. It is a close U.S. ally and the regional power best positioned to both influence Hamas and play a mediating role with Israel.The war began Oct. 7, when nearly 2,000 Hamas militants stormed into Israel, killing around 1,400 people — mostly Israeli civilians, including women and children. The militants also took an estimated 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.
Qatar has been able to play this role because it has hosted Hamas leaders in exile, though it's unclear whether it can keep doing so amidThe Biden administration and senior Israeli officials have lauded Qatar's role in trying to free more than 200 hostages, among them children and elderly, held by militants in Gaza.
Israel allowed these transfers to Hamas. Supporters of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say the payments his government approved helped keep the status quo in the Gaza Strip andin the West Bank and perpetuating the rift between the two Palestinian factions in order to avoid engaging in a real peace process and two-state solution.
Israel's Cabinet recently approved measures that could lead to a shutdown of Al Jazeera's operations in the country. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly asked Qatar's emir Doha has helped free Western hostages held by extremist groups in Syria, and recently negotiated a high-profile prisoner swap between the U.S. and Iran.
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