UAE summons deputy Israeli ambassador over attack on Hamas in Qatar

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By Maha El Dahan

DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates on Friday said it had summoned the deputy Israeli ambassador over Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s subsequent “hostile and unacceptable” remarks, in another sign of strain between the two countries with close economic and defence ties.

The UAE, the most prominent Arab country to normalise ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords, told David Ohad Horsandi “the continuation of such hostile and provocative rhetoric …solidifies a situation that is unacceptable and cannot be overlooked,” the Emirati foreign ministry said in a statement.

Even before Tuesday’s strike on the Qatari capital Doha, relations between Abu Dhabi and Israel’s government — the most right-wing in its history — had been uneasy over a planned Israeli annexation in the West Bank, which the UAE said would constitute a “red line”.

Israel’s attempt to kill Hamas political leaders prompted international condemnation, but on Wednesday an unrepentant Netanyahu warned Qatar to either expel Hamas officials or “bring them to justice, because if you don’t, we will”.

The UAE, a major oil producer and regional trade and commerce hub with diplomatic sway across the Middle East, signed a U.S.-brokered normalisation agreement with Israel under the Abraham Accords in 2020, which paved the way for close economic and security ties, including defence cooperation.

UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan was the first state leader to visit Doha after the attack, and he toured Gulf Arab countries to coordinate positions on the Israeli strike.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli foreign ministry.

NORMALISATION EFFORTS COMPLICATED

The Doha attack was especially provocative because Qatar has long been mediating Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas along with Egypt and the United States, and Doha was hosting the talks.

Doha will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit this Sunday and Monday to discuss the Israeli attack.

The Abraham Accords, brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump during his first term in office, saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalise diplomatic relations with Israel.

The deals were seen as a foreign policy triumph for Trump, who has been seeking during his second term to persuade regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia to also normalise relations with Israel, efforts complicated by Israel’s expansion of the Gaza war.

The Gaza conflict was triggered by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and about 251 were taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

More than 64,000 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have since been killed in an Israeli military campaign in Gaza during the war, according to local health authorities.

(Reporting by Maha Eldahan and Ahmed Elimam in Dubai, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Writing by Ahmed Elimam and Nayera Abdallah, Editing by Kevin Liffey, William Maclean, Michael Georgy, Aidan Lewis)