Qatar has agreed to kick Hamas out of the country after a request from the Biden administration and failed repeated attempts to get the terror group to release the remaining hostages its militants kidnapped from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
The move came after Hamas repeatedly rejected hostage release proposals.
A U.S. official told Fox News Qatar has been “invaluable” in negotiating the release of nearly 200 hostages but that Hamas’ presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in Doha Oct. 24, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Hamas refused proposals to release even “a small number of hostages” during recent meetings in Cairo after the killing of Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel.
Sinwar was killed in Gaza by Israeli forces in October.
In August, Hamas terrorists killed six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, as Israel Defense Forces closed in for a rescue attempt in the tunnels deep below Gaza’s Rafah.
Negotiations to pause the war between Israel and Hamas have stalled, with Israeli officials saying the release of the hostages was a top priority.
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The Justice Department has charged several top Hamas leaders in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Fox News Digital has reached out to Qatar’s embassy in Washington, D.C.
In addition to its presence in Turkey, Arab media reported in June that Hamas was considering moving its headquarters to Iraq. The group already has a political office in Baghdad.
