RUTHFULLY YOURS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to bomb Hamas’s terrorist leadership in Qatar should send a clear and unequivocal message to the Trump administration that the Israeli leader has absolutely no intention of ending hostilities in Gaza until Hamas is utterly destroyed, and all the remaining Israeli hostages have been returned.

Prior to Israel’s attack against the headquarters of Hamas’s terrorist leadership in Doha, the Qatari capital, US President Donald Trump had been pressing hard for Netanyahu to sign up to the latest version of the ceasefire proposal his administration has drawn up to end the Gaza conflict.

Under the terms of the latest deal negotiated by Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, all the remaining 48 hostages captured during Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack in 2023 were to be released. In return, Israel would free an estimated 2,500-3,000 Palestinian prisoners.

“We’re working on a solution that may be very good,” Trump said of the proposed deal, while declining to give further details. “You’ll be hearing about it pretty soon. We’re trying to get it ended, get the hostages back.”

There was even cautious optimism in Washington that Israel was minded to accept the deal after Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was ready to agree a deal ending the war that would include the release of all the hostages — only 20 of whom are believed to be alive — and the disarmament of Hamas.

Concerns remained, though, about Hamas’s willingness to accept the deal, as had previously been the case whenever Hamas has been offered the opportunity to end the bloodshed in Gaza.

The intransigence of Hamas’s terrorist leadership, moreover, has undoubtedly been encouraged by recent announcements by naïve Western leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, that they intend to recognise a Palestinian state at the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York in the next weeks.

The announcement prompted Hamas leaders to declare that the move represented a “victory” for the terrorist organization. Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, declared:

“[T]he fruits of October 7 are what caused the entire world to open its eyes to the Palestinian issue… We have proven that victory over Israel is not impossible, and our weapons are a symbol of Palestinian honour.”

Hamas’s delaying tactics even prompted Trump to issue the terror group a “last warning“. In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated:

“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning. There will not be another one.”

In the event, Hamas not only ignored Trump’s warning: it launched yet another terrorist attack against Israeli civilians in Jerusalem, killing six people after terrorists opened fire on a bus and people waiting at a bus stop. The military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Netanyahu’s response was to target those responsible for ordering the Jerusalem attack, namely the Hamas leadership based in Qatar, the Gulf state that has funded the movement’s terrorist operations for many years.

Hamas later claimed that five of its terrorists had been killed in the Israeli airstrike on a meeting of Hamas officials in Doha, while insisting that none of them were from the senior leadership. A Qatari security guard was also killed in the attack.

While the Israeli strike prompted international criticism, with Trump telling Netanyahu in a heated telephone call that the action was “unwise”, it has nevertheless highlighted the Israeli leader’s determination to press ahead with his military campaign in Gaza until Hamas is completely destroyed and all the remaining Israeli hostages have been freed.

The Trump administration’s unhappiness with Netanyahu stems from Washington reportedly having been given no prior warning of the Israeli attack, only to have found out about the mission through US intelligence agencies. Trump has subsequently complained that by the time he learned of Netanyahu’s plans, it was “too late to stop the attack” which he claimed “does not advance Israel or America’s goals”.

Trump also appeared embarrassed that, while his administration tried to warn the Qataris in advance of the attack, the warning only reached Doha after the attack had actually taken place.

Even so, the Trump administration doubtless understands that Netanyahu’s willingness to attack Hamas’s leadership even when they are being protected by a foreign power such as Qatar, merely indicates the Israeli leader’s determination to achieve the goal of “finishing the job” as the US requested.

It is a key factor the Trump administration needs to take on board before it attempts to negotiate any future ceasefire arrangements for Gaza. Netanyahu seems to have come to the conclusion, after repeated evasions by Hamas, that the time for any productive negotiating is over.

Hamas has apparently realised that if it returns all the hostages, it will have no more leverage with which to blackmail Israel.

That is why Netanyahu will most likely ignore the continuing clamour among some Israelis for a premature ceasefire deal that would enable Hamas not only to hold on to some of the hostages to use as bargaining chips in any future negotiations. A premature ceasefire would essentially enable Hamas to retain a presence in Gaza, a move the terror group would pocket as a major victory.

Netanyahu had already demonstrated his willingness to eliminate Hamas terrorists seeking refuge in foreign countries, as the July 2024 assassination in Iran of Ismail Haniyeh, one of the Hamas leaders behind the October 7 attack, has graphically demonstrated.

So long as Hamas’s terrorist leaders show no willingness to lay down their weapons and leave Gaza, it is clear that Netanyahu needs to continue to hunt them down, irrespective of where they may be hiding. There seems no point in assuring terrorist kingpins safe havens.

If the Trump administration is serious about bringing peace to Gaza, the region and ultimately West – as to its enormous credit, it seems to be — then it should continue to support Israel’s attempts to destroy Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure instead of working on Gaza ceasefire plans that Hamas and its backers have no intention of ever accepting.

Con Coughlin is the Telegraph‘s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.