Top Qatari officials and Hamas leaders conspired to derail US President Donald Trump's 2020 'Peace To Prosperity' deal, his first administration's flagship Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, according to a report by Israel's Channel 12.
The explosive revelations come from a trove of documents allegedly recovered by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza. One such document talks about an emergency meeting held in June 2019 between Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and senior Hamas leaders, including Khaled Mashal, the former chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau.
"We must work together to oppose and eliminate the 'deal of the century,'" Mashal said during the meeting, according to the recovered documents.
Six months later, Qatar's then-foreign minister Mahammed bin Hamad al Thani sent a message to then-Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, saying, "The Qatari grants are Hamas's main artery."
The documents further allege that Hamas, with Qatari backing, worked to push Egypt out of its mediating role in Gaza. "The Egyptians were attempting to restrain the escalation and we caused them to leave the picture with empty hands," said Yahya Sinwar in May 2021, when he was the Hamas leader in Gaza. "In their place, the Qataris came, and we gave them an opportunity to dictate the fruits of diplomacy."
Yahya Sinwar was killed in October 2024 during fighting with the IDF.
Other documents reportedly show Hamas leaders being grateful toward Qatar for facilitating their travel to Tehran for the funeral of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020. "Thank you to Qatari brothers who agreed to fly us," Haniyeh wrote to Qatari leadership in a note dated January 7, 2020.
Ismail Haniyeh, the former head of the Hamas Political Bureau, was killed by an Israeli airstrike last year in Tehran during the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. His body was flown to Qatar and buried in Lusail.
The Qatari government has denied the materials in the documents as "fabricated" and accused Israeli media of attempting to undermine diplomatic efforts. The statement said that such tactics had been used before "by those who want diplomacy to fail."
Donald Trump's 2020 'Peace To Prosperity' plan aimed to solve the Israel-Palestine conflict by creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. It gave Israel full control over Jerusalem and allowed it to keep major West Bank settlements. Palestinians were offered some parts of East Jerusalem as their capital and a promise of $50 billion in global investment to improve their economy.
In return, they had to reject violence and accept Israel as a Jewish state. Palestinian refugees would not be allowed to return to Israel but could be given money or settle elsewhere. Israel supported the plan, but Palestinian leaders rejected it, saying it was unfair and favoured Israel too much.
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