Israel to Qatar after genocide libel: ‘Stop playing both sides’

In a fiery statement, Prime Minister Netanyahu accuses Qatar of hypocrisy and “double talk” after the country condemned Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Qatar, one of the main negotiators between the Jewish state and the Hamas terror group, for accusing Israel of genocide and war crimes at a recent international tribunal.

“Israel is fighting a just war with just means. After the October 7 atrocities, Prime Minister Netanyahu defined the War of Redemption as a war between civilization and barbarism,” Netanyahu wrote on his official X account on Saturday.

“The time has come for Qatar to stop playing both sides with its double talk and decide if it’s on the side of civilization or if it’s on the side of Hamas barbarism. Israel will win this just war with just means,” Netanyahu added.

Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansar fired back after Netanyahu’s tweet, calling the statement “inflammatory” and morally irresponsible.

“Portraying the ongoing aggression against Gaza as a defense of ‘civilization’ echoes the rhetoric of regimes throughout history that have used false narratives to justify crimes against innocent civilians,” al-Ansari said.

He added that Israel’s military offensive against the Hamas terror group constitutes “one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of modern times.”

Concluding his statement, al-Ansari insisted that Qatar continues to serve as a “credible and impartial mediator.”

Netanyahu’s remarks came after a senior Qatari official accused Israel of perpetrating a “genocide of war against the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza,” during an international tribunal focusing on the ongoing blockade of Hamas in the Strip.

Qatari diplomat Mutlaq Al-Qahtani told the International Court of Justice last Thursday that “Israel systematically uses starvation in its war, which is in violation of international norms and laws and is considered a war crime, especially against children.”

Qatar, which has long provided a safe haven for senior Hamas terrorists, has publicly maintained that it is a neutral party in the Israeli-Arab conflict, assuming an important role in negotiating previous ceasefires between Israel and Hamas.