From Qatar to the Gold Coast

Qatar is a small country with a tiny population of less than 400,000 citizens, but with immense wealth and an ideology that drives it. Read more

UN Security Council condemns Israeli strikes on Qatar

All United Nations Security Council members, including the United States, have backed the “territorial integrity of Qatar” following an Israeli attack in Doha. Read more

Israel attacks Hamas in Qatar, Trump ‘very unhappy’

Donald Trump says he’s “very unhappy about every aspect” of the surprise Israeli strike on Hamas leaders in the capital of close US strategic ally Qatar. Read more

‘Israel takes full responsibility’ for Qatari airstrike; fate of Hamas leaders unclear

In his first comments on the airstrikes in Qatar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was fully responsible for the operation. Read more

Israeli army chief sees ‘potential’ for a hostage deal

Israel’s military chief has told soldiers that their actions are “creating the potential for a hostage deal” in the Gaza Strip. Read more

Netanyahu confirms Israel weighing ceasefire and broader Gaza war exit plan

Signalling a notable shift, Israeli negotiators in Qatar are exploring both a short-term ceasefire proposal and a broader agreement to end the Gaza conflict entirely, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Sunday. Read more

Israeli delegation to work out technical aspects of ceasefire’s next stage in Qatar

Following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s discussions in Washington, Israel will dispatch a working-level delegation to Qatar to address technical aspects of the second phase of a ceasefire with Hamas, the Prime Minister’s office said on Tuesday morning. Read more

US ‘asked Qatar to expel Hamas’ after hostage deal snub

The US told Qatar the presence of Hamas in Doha is no longer acceptable in the weeks since the Palestinian terrorist group rejected the latest proposal to achieve a ceasefire and a hostage deal, a senior administration official says. Read more

US plan not a good deal but Israel accepts it: Netanyahu aide

An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that Israel has accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war being advanced by US President Joe Biden. Read more

US push for Qatar to expel Hamas gathers momentum

American pressure on Qatar to expel the Hamas leadership is mounting as the Gulf state’s mediation of another ceasefire collapsed. Read more

Israel begins evacuating Palestinians from Rafah

The Israel Defence Forces began evacuating Palestinians in parts of Rafah today, ahead of an expected military advance on the city. Read more

Israel to attend truce talks, Gaza hunger crisis acute

The main UN aid agency operating in Gaza says acute malnutrition is accelerating in the north of the Palestinian enclave as Israel prepares to send a delegation to Qatar for new ceasefire talks on a hostage deal with Hamas. Read more

Hamas presses on with Gaza truce talks without Israel

Hamas and Egyptian mediators are pressing on with talks in Cairo on securing a ceasefire in Gaza, despite Israel’s decision not to send a delegation, as Washington pressed again for a truce, the release of hostages and a plan to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe. Read more

Plan for one-month Gaza truce makes progress

Israel and Hamas have moved closer to an agreement on a 30-day ceasefire in Gaza when Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners would be released, sources tell Reuters, as Israel presses ahead with its assault on southern Gaza’s main city of Khan Younis. Read more

Qatar, France broker deal for aid, medication to Gaza

Qatar and France have brokered a deal with Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas to deliver urgent medication to some 45 Israeli hostages held by the group in Gaza in return for humanitarian and medical aid for the most vulnerable civilians. Read more

Egypt floats ambitious plan to end Israel-Hamas war

Egypt has put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a ceasefire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts. Read more

Mossad and Qatar officials meet as Israel bombards Gaza

As Israel’s bombardment of Gaza continues, it is showing the first signs of coming to the negotiating table since the collapse of last month’s truce. Read more

Third group of hostages freed, prisoners released in Israel-Hamas deal

Another 17 hostages, including a US girl, have been released by Hamas, while Palestinian women and children have been released from Israeli prisons. Read more

Israel approves partial prisoner swap, temporary ceasefire with Hamas

The Israeli Cabinet has approved a partial Qatari-brokered prisoner swap and temporary ceasefire in the early hours of Wednesday morning, paving the way for the first Israeli hostages to return home possibly as soon as Thursday. Read more

Mossad, CIA chiefs and Qatar PM ‘discuss hostage deal’

The CIA and Mossad chiefs have met with the Qatari prime minister in Doha to discuss the parameters of a deal for hostage releases and a pause in Hamas-Israel fighting in the Gaza Strip, a source briefed on the meeting has told Reuters. Read more

Biden speaks to freed American-Israeli hostages

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke by phone on Saturday with Judith and Natalie Raanan, freed the previous night from captivity in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Read more

Qatar wants to negotiate captured Israelis, jailed Palestinians swap

Qatari mediators have held urgent calls with Hamas to try to negotiate freedom for Israeli women and children seized by the militant group and held in Gaza in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israel’s prisons, a source briefed on the talks says. Read more

Hamas offers quiet for open border crossings and Qatari cash

Hamas has offered to quiet down recent Palestinian riots along the Gaza border in exchange for Israel opening the border crossings with the Strip and a resumption of Qatari financial aid, the Tazpit Press Service has learned. Read more

Blowing the whistle on FIFA’s systemic antisemitism

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar has arguably become the most controversial to date, raising widespread indignation over myriad issues concerning its host, including Qatar’s decision to ban beer from stadiums and its mistreatment of the press, the LGBTQ+ community and migrant workers, 6,500 of whom have died since Qatar was awarded the Cup. Read more

The not so beautiful game

They call football the beautiful game – a game played with grace and beauty and elegance as if poetry itself has leapt from the pages and onto the playing fields where players move with the smoothness of a gentle breeze across vast desert sands…writes Justin Ambler. Read more

Own goals

Scoring an own goal can be a most embarrassing result in a soccer game, but it also has another connotation. Read more

15,000 Israelis in Qatar for the World Cup

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Qatar’s farcical World Cup begins

Even before the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar kicked off, the tournament already had a hero: the former captain of the Iranian national team, Ali Daei. Read more

Gaza terror organisations to respond to IDF’s operation in Jenin

The Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported Sunday that sources in the Gaza Strip say that Egypt and Qatar are acting as mediators and have stepped up efforts to obtain calm, especially in Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem, following the operation in Jenin in which three Islamic Jihad operatives were eliminated by Israeli Special Forces as they were on their way to carry out a terror attack. Read more

Hamas demands to add its members to list of families supported by Qatari grants

The Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, which has good sources in Hamas, reported Monday that Egypt is asking Hamas to wait for Israel’s response regarding the demands of terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip put forward regarding a possible prisoner exchange deal and parameters for the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip. Read more

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