A senior US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters last Friday that the US had been telling Qatar, which it considers an ally, that it is no longer acceptable for there to be a Hamas presence in Doha, where leaders of the terrorist organization have lived in exile in expensive flats for years, after rejected the latest ceasefire and hostage proposal. "After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner. We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas's rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal," the official said.
The official revealed that Qatar then demanded the Hamas leaders to leave a couple of weeks ago, the Jerusalem Post reports. Israeli state broadcaster KAN reported that Qatar told the terrorists "You are not welcome here," according to a source familiar with the matter.
"Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round," a statement from the Qatari foreign ministry said, per BBC. "Qatar will resume those efforts... when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war."
“Hamas is a terrorist group that has killed Americans and continues to hold Americans hostage,” another senior US administration official told CNN. “After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, its leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner.”
Three Hamas officials have denied that leaders were told to leave Qatar, however. Another one told Army Radio that Qatar "has no plans to expel the leaders from Doha" and that "the Israeli reports are completely baseless."
In October, Israel confirmed that the "mastermind" behind the October 7 massacre Yahya Sinwar was eliminated in a drone strike. He had assumed the role of head of Hamas after its previous leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Iran in July. Over in Lebanon, the chief of Hamas' ally Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated in September along with Lebanon Hamas leader Fateh Sharif.
