GAZA, (The Palestinian Information Center) The Hamas Movement has accused the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of deliberately undermining ceasefire and prisoner exchange efforts, holding it fully responsible for an attempted assassination against the Movement’s negotiating delegation in Doha.
In an urgent memorandum sent to Arab and Islamic foreign ministers, the UN, the African Union, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Hamas detailed what it described as a “treacherous” Israeli attempt to assassinate its negotiators in the Qatari capital.
According to the memo, delivered by senior Hamas official Mohammed Darwish, the assassination attempt came just one day after a Hamas delegation, including negotiators, met with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who presented them with a new ceasefire proposal.
The delegation was targeted on September 9, 2025, as they gathered to discuss the proposal. Israeli warplanes struck the home of Dr. Khalil al-Hayya, head of the negotiating team, killing his son Hammam, his office director Jihad Lubad, three aides, and a member of the Qatari protective detail. Several family members were wounded, though the Hamas delegation itself survived.
Hamas said the strike was a blatant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty as a mediator, and further evidence of Israel’s reliance on assassination and massacres to derail diplomacy. The Movement stressed that it had shown “maximum flexibility” to stop what it called the ongoing genocide against Palestinians, only for the Netanyahu government to repeatedly sabotage agreements with new conditions and targeted killings.
The memo reminded international leaders that Israel walked away from the January 17, 2025, agreement and resumed attacks marked by mass killings, forced displacement, and starvation, despite Hamas’s compliance. It also recalled the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haneyya in Tehran earlier this year, despite Hamas having accepted a mediation proposal at the time.
Hamas underscored that it is a democratically elected national liberation movement seeking freedom and independence for Palestinians, warning that attempts to classify its leaders as “military targets” were nothing more than justification for war crimes. It said the far-right Israeli government, “driven by apocalyptic visions,” is stoking extremism and terrorism across the region and the world.
The Movement called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its genocide in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem, and to end what it described as Israel’s lawless impunity. Hamas urged Arab and Islamic states to isolate Israel politically and economically, pursue its leaders in international courts, and impose accountability for violations of sovereignty and international law.
The statement reaffirmed that the Palestinian struggle aims to liberate occupied land, establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, and secure the right of return for refugees.
Meanwhile, Arab and Islamic foreign ministers began a closed-door session in Doha on Sunday evening, preparing for an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to address Israel’s attack in Qatar.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said the summit will draft a joint declaration on the Israeli strike. “This summit at this particular moment carries deep meaning,” he said, adding that it reflects broad Arab and Islamic solidarity with Qatar against what he called Israel’s cowardly aggression targeting the residences of Hamas leaders, and a clear rejection of Israel’s state terrorism.
