The devastating, nearly two-year war in Gaza is casting a long shadow over the emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Doha. While the immediate cause of the meeting is an Israeli strike in Qatar, the underlying context for the entire crisis remains the unresolved and bloody conflict that has killed over 64,000 Palestinians.
The Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha was a direct extension of its war aims in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has explicitly linked the elimination of these leaders to his government’s goals of releasing hostages and ending the conflict on its terms. This brings the brutal realities of the war directly into the heart of Gulf diplomacy.
The summit’s participants are acutely aware that the tensions in Doha cannot be separated from the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. The ongoing violence and the failure to reach a ceasefire are the root cause of the regional instability that led to the strike. Any resolution from the summit must, therefore, also address the core conflict.
As leaders condemn the violation of Qatar’s sovereignty, they are also grappling with the intractable problem of Gaza. The incident in Doha serves as a stark reminder that as long as the war rages, its potential to spill over and destabilize the entire region remains a constant and imminent threat.