Netanyahu Defends Past Strike on Qatar, Asserts Qatari Aid to Gaza Was Purely Humanitarian

Israeli Prime Minister asserts that the Qatari funds facilitated for Gaza were recommended by Israeli security agencies for strictly humanitarian purposes.

Published On 6 Sep 2026

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly boasted about military strikes against Qatar while dismissing domestic allegations that funds sent to the Gaza Strip were diverted for anything other than humanitarian aid.

In an interview with Israel’s i24NEWS shared on social media over the weekend, Netanyahu characterized Qatar as a hostile entity that failed to dictate Israeli policy during the conflict in Gaza.

“I attacked Qatar, I bombed it, and engaged them during the war, and they attacked me,” Netanyahu boasted during the interview.

The interview is timed just days before the one-year anniversary of Israel’s September 9, 2025, strike on Doha. The airstrike tragically claimed the lives of five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer during discussions regarding a U.S.-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal.

Qatar has long served as a key mediator in regional conflicts and has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012, a move it states was requested by the United States.

Doha strongly condemned the strike, labeling it a blatant violation of international laws and norms, with Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari describing the assault as cowardly.

Regional powers, including Iran and Pakistan, also condemned the attack, prompting leaders from Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia to visit Qatar shortly afterward in a demonstration of solidarity.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the strikes, calling them a flagrant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Later that month, during a meeting at the White House, Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump personally called Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, to offer an apology for the strike.

Netanyahu is currently facing heightened domestic pressure ahead of Israel’s legislative elections scheduled for next month.

In the i24NEWS interview, Netanyahu also defended the facilitation of millions of dollars in Qatari funds to Gaza, asserting that the transfers were intended for humanitarian purposes and executed on the recommendation of Israeli security agencies, Mossad and Shin Bet.

“All this money constitutes just 2 percent of the total funds that have entered the Strip,” the prime minister stated.

Critics of Netanyahu have alleged that these funds were funneled to help Hamas orchestrate its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which precipitated the ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

Qatar vigorously denies these allegations, asserting that claims of funding Hamas are entirely unfounded and highlighting the strict oversight protocols governing its aid transfers.

“Today, when Israel claims that this represents Qatari financing of Hamas, it has no basis,” Sheikh Mohammed stated during last year’s Doha Forum.

“All of our aid went directly to Gaza, to the people, and was managed under a highly transparent process of which the United States is fully aware.”

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