Eurasia Press & News
The deal seemed on the verge of unraveling. Hamas had accused Israel of failing to keep its side of the bargain and Israel was threatening to resume its lethal onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
That was the point at which a Qatari jet landed at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on Saturday. Negotiators aboard set to work, seeking to save the cease-fire deal between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers before it fell apart and scuttled weeks of high-stakes diplomatic wrangling.
The first public visit by Qatari officials to Israel marked an extraordinary moment for the two countries, which have no official diplomatic relations. It also underscored the major role of the tiny emirate in bridging differences between the enemies.
“This is something we’ve never seen before,” Yoel Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said of the Qataris’ stay in Israel. “It’s the only external actor in the world with that much leverage on Hamas, because of its many years of support.”
