As first reported in the Wall Street Journal, Qatar was alleged to have offered to “take care of” Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), in connection with his pursuit of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then–Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024.

According to a witness statement reportedly submitted to the FBI, there were claims of a Qatari-linked effort to discredit a woman who had accused Khan of sexual misconduct shortly before the warrants were issued. Recordings of meetings allegedly captured discussions about attempting to link the accuser to Israel to undermine her credibility. Reporting suggested Khan received firm assurances of protection from the Qatari state itself, rather than from an individual intermediary.

Benjamin Netanyahu sharply criticized the ICC, describing it as a “corrupt and morally bankrupt institution,” and arguing that the allegations against Israel lacked merit from the outset. These developments unfolded in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 attacks, in which Hamas terrorists brutally slaughtered approximately 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages into Gaza, triggering Israel’s ongoing military response.

This is not an isolated episode involving Qatar, nor merely a reflection of tensions arising from the current war. To understand the broader context, one must look back to October 1993, shortly after the signing of the Oslo Accords. The so-called “Philadelphia meeting” brought together US-based activists aligned with Hamas in a covert gathering recorded by the FBI. Discussions focused on opposing the Oslo process while carefully operating within US legal constraints, including advancing Hamas’s agenda through charitable and community channels while maintaining plausible deniability. The meeting later surfaced in terrorism financing cases as evidence of a wider support network operating within the United States.

There is no evidence that Qatar was involved in that 1993 meeting. However, in the years that followed, it emerged as a significant external actor in Hamas’s circle, hosting senior leaders such as Khaled Meshaal and Ismail Haniyeh, providing........

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