Doha
\nAn emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic states is taking place in Qatar in response to Israel\u2019s air strike on Hamas leaders in Doha last week.
\nA draft resolution seen by the Reuters news agency condemns what it calls Israel\u2019s \u201chostile acts including genocide, ethnic cleansing, [and] starvation\u201d, which it says threatens \u201cprospects of peace and coexistence\u201d. Israel has strongly denied such allegations.
\nIt is not clear what practical decisions could be taken, as analysts say any kind of military response is out of the question.
\nEarlier, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani urged the international community to stop applying \u201cdouble standards\u201d and to punish Israel.
\nOn Sunday, US President Donald Trump said that \u201cQatar has been a very great ally. Israel and everybody else, we have to be careful. When we attack people we have to be careful.\u201d
\nDeparting for Israel on Saturday, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said Trump \u201cdidn\u2019t like the way [the Qatar attack] went down\u201d.
\nAfter holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem the next day, Rubio said Hamas \u201cneeds to cease to exist as an armed element that can threaten the peace and security\u201d in the Middle East.
\nThe Israeli strike on Qatar\u2019s capital was last week condemned by the UN Security Council.
\n\u201cCouncil members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar,\u201d the 15-member council said in a statement.
\nIsrael defended its action, with President Isaac Herzog saying that the strike was necessary to \u201cremove some of the people if they are not willing to get a deal\u201d to end the war.
\nHamas said its negotiating team survived the Israeli strike on 9 September – but five of its members were killed, including the son of the group\u2019s chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.
\n A Qatari security officer was also killed.
\nQatar has played a key role in brokering diplomatic efforts to end the war, serving as a mediator of indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
\nIt has hosted the Hamas political bureau since 2012 and is a close US ally, hosting a large American airbase in the desert near Doha.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doha An emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic states is taking place in Qatar in response to Israel\u2019s air strike on Hamas leaders in Doha last week. A draft resolution seen by the Reuters news agency condemns what it calls Israel\u2019s \u201chostile acts including genocide, ethnic cleansing, [and] starvation\u201d, which it says threatens \u201cprospects of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-503077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n