Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said Tuesday that Israel had chosen war over the return of its remaining 48 hostages, and that its “treacherous” September 9 attack on the Hamas leadership in Doha was an attempt to derail the Qatari-mediated Gaza hostage-ceasefire talks.

In his address to the UN General Assembly in New York, al-Thani accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sees the Gaza war as “an opportunity to expand settlements.”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the leaders of Jordan and Turkey also condemned Israel over its conduct in Gaza, with Jordan’s King Abdullah devoting almost his entire address to a denunciation of the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which he said was not a partner for peace and whose “Greater Israel” calls threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel’s neighbors.

In sharp contrast, the president of Indonesia — the world’s most populous Muslim nation, which has no formal relations with Israel — said the world must respect Israel’s right to security and ended his speech with the Hebrew benediction “Shalom.”

Some of al-Thani’s criticism of Netanyahu was echoed by hostage families, who vowed to follow Netanyahu this week to the General Assembly, where the prime minister is set to speak on Friday, in protest of the new IDF operation to take over Gaza City.

Hostage families have said the operation, whose ground phase was launched last week, places their loved ones’ lives in acute danger. They have also assailed the strike on Doha for scuttling the hostage-ceasefire negotiations, which have stalled since then.

Addressing the strike, Qatar’s emir slammed the violation of the Gulf state’s sovereignty and reiterated his denunciation of Israel’s “rogue act … of state terrorism,” accusing Israel of a policy of political assassinations.

“They visit our country and plot to attack it,” al-Thani said of Israel, which has frequently sent negotiators to Doha. “They negotiate with delegations and plot to assassinate the members of the negotiation teams. It is difficult to cooperate with such a mentality that does not respect the most minimal standards of cooperation. It is impossible.”

“They consider negotiations the continuation of war by other means and a way to delude the Israeli public opinion,” he went on. “If the release of Israeli hostages is [contingent on] the end of war, the government of Israel is abandoning the notion of releasing the hostages,” said al-Thani.

The Israeli government’s “goal is to destroy Gaza so that it is unlivable and where no one can study or receive treatment,” he said. Israel is, in other words, aiming to “end the viability of the Gaza Strip, to displace its population.”

Referring to Netanyahu, al-Thani said: “The Israeli leader wants to continue war. He believes in what is called Greater Israel.”

Al-Thani said Netanyahu “believes that war is an opportunity to expand settlements and to change the status quo in the holy sites” on the Temple Mount, a flash point that was the site of the two Jewish temples of antiquity and is now the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site. “He also plots for attacks in the West Bank,” said the Qatari emir.

“Israel is not a democratic country surrounded by enemies, but in fact it is an enemy to its surrounding neighbors,” al-Thani said.

Amid a wave, applauded by al-Thani and decried by Israel, of recognitions of Palestinian statehood by Western nations, the emir noted that Netanyahu has vowed to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state. The emir also accused Israel of genocide, a charge Israel has bitterly........

© The Times of Israel