Qatar briefly exiled Hamas leaders in April as Gaza ceasefire talks stalled: Report

Qatar quietly and briefly kicked out leaders of Hamas in April when the talks for the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip were stalling, according to a report.

The reported development happened at a time when Qatar was leading the mediation in the talks being facilitated between Israel and Hamas. Hamas, the terrorist group that triggered the war with Israel with its October 7 attack, has its political headquarters in Qatar’s capital Doha.

Following the Qatar’s expulsion, leaders of Hamas went to Turkey where they were hosted and praised by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to the report in The Times of Israel. Turkey has had long ties with Hamas. The terrorist group has had an office in the country since 2011.

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Qatar expelled Hamas leaders to increase pressure for Gaza truce talks: Report

Qatar expelled the leaders of Hamas to ramp-up pressure on the terrorist group to relax its position in the talks for a ceasefire in Gaza, as per ToI.

The report said the expulsion order came shortly after Qatari Prime Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on April 17 said that Doha was reviewing its role as a mediator in the Gaza ceasefire talks. While the statement was seen at the time as a rebuke of Israel, two officials told ToI that the review also stemmed from Qatar’s the frustration with Hamas, which it felt was refusing to “sufficiently compromise” in the talks, reported ToI.

Through the several rounds of talks, Israel has maintained that Qatar has not adequately pressure Hamas to make concessions.

After the reported expulsion and Qatar’s announcement of review of its role as a mediator, Egypt launched its initiative to facilitate the talks. The talks were said to gain momentum and the two sides were said to be close to reaching a deal, but the talks faltered and no deal has since been reached.

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As talks in Egypt’s capital Cairo reached an impasse, Qatar informed Hamas leaders that they could return to Doha with the hope that this would prevent the talks from falling apart altogether, according to the report.

Talks failed as Egypt presented different proposals to Israel & Hamas: Report

The ToI report said that the reason Gaza ceasefire talks collapsed was that Egypt had presented two proposals to Israel and Hamas.

While Egypt discussed a proposal with Israel that was closer to its position of continuing the war after a temporary ceasefire, the proposal discussed with Hamas was closer to the terrorist group’s demand that the truce being discussed led to a permanent ceasefire, according to the newspaper.

Such an approach by Egypt was not cooperated with other mediators and facilitators, such as Qatar and the United States, as per the paper.

The report added that Bill Burns, the Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was particularly angered with this approach. Burns has been one of the main brokers of Hamas-Israel dialogue.