How an Israeli cell orchestrated an anti-Qatar campaign

A group of Israeli influence experts and political advisers worked on a secret campaign targeting Qatar in the weeks after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, before the initiative was abruptly halted, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The campaign was launched days after the assault on southern Israel and sought to pressure Qatar over its relationship with Hamas, Haaretz reported on Monday.

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“Their goal was to launch a global civilian influence campaign against Qatar,” the newspaper reported.

Those behind it believed international pressure could force Doha to influence Hamas to secure the release of the 251 captives taken to Gaza on October 7, Haaretz said.

According to the report, about 30 people were recruited to the project, including political advisers and experts in influence operations and psychological warfare.

A WhatsApp group called Free the Kidnapped was established several days after October 7. The identities of those who initiated the operation “are barred from publication”, Haaretz said.

The newspaper described the effort as a “civilian initiative”.

But Marc Owen Jones, associate professor at Northwestern University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera, “It is unlikely such a campaign would exist without the motivation of an actor like Israel.”

He said he has tracked a campaign against Qatar for the “past three years that sounds exactly like that”.

“I imagine it stopped either because they are pretending it is not happening or outsourced it to another entity for cover.”

Qatar has been the key mediator between Hamas and Israel since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began.

Although Israeli officials have repeatedly travelled to Doha for indirect negotiations with Hamas, the Israeli army carried out a missile strike on the country last year on September 9, targeting Hamas’s negotiating team. Six people were killed, including a Qatari national.

The episode was condemned by countries including France and the United Kingdom.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later apologised for the strike.

The following month, Israel and Hamas agreed to a “ceasefire” deal, which Israel to date has violated hundreds of times.

Since October, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,300 Palestinians in Gaza and injured nearly 4,700.

In total, Israel has killed more than 73,700 people since October 2023, when it launched its genocidal war on the Palestinian enclave.

Qatar has repeatedly denied allegations that it funds Hamas, pointing to the strict oversight governing its aid transfers.

“All our aid, financing, and all our support … went to the people in Gaza, and was a very transparent process that the United States is very aware of … [and] Israel was the one facilitating,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s prime minister, said last year. “This communication has led to ceasefires, has led to the release of hostages, has led to alleviating the suffering of the people over there.”

Doha, which has long served as a mediator in Middle East conflicts and beyond, has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012. The decision to host the Hamas leadership came after a request from the United States, according to Qatari officials.

Haaretz reported that one member of the anti-Qatar WhatsApp group asked, “Do we know how much Qatar gives Hamas every year or some other monetary figure that we can hammer home?”

Another responded, “Qatar-ISIS Ltd”.

The message “Hamas is ISIS” was subsequently used on the campaign’s website and Facebook profile, the Haaretz report revealed.

Participants raised donations, produced videos, contacted journalists and arranged media appearances as part of their secret campaign.

A website was also established in several languages and social media accounts were opened.

Haaretz reported that a former Mossad official was also part of the group.

But about a month after it began, the campaign was abruptly halted.

“After a while, it was shut down. We stopped dealing with the Qatar campaign,” one participant told the Israeli newspaper. “I never heard anything more about the campaign.”

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