As Israeli voters prepare for elections on Oct. 27, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to defend and distance himself from one of his government’s most controversial policies: allowing Qatar to funnel nearly $2 billion into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for more than a decade.
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Qatar → prepare → decade
Previously undisclosed documents obtained by TIME, including letters from senior Israeli security officials to Qatari leaders, reveal that Israel encouraged and played a direct role in a payment program that was more extensive than Netanyahu has publicly acknowledged.
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Netanyahu → obtain → program
Beginning in 2012, Netanyahu’s government helped to facilitate Qatari payments to Gaza that had begun after Hamas seized control in 2007.
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Hamas → begin → 2007
By 2018, Qatar had sent roughly $1.1 billion into the Strip, according to an analysis provided to Israeli ministers, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, with the funding designated for humanitarian assistance, fuel, and government salaries.
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funding → send → assistance
That year, after Israeli officials castigated Qatar for allegedly financing Hamas, the Qataris began demanding formal documentation of an arrangement the two governments had agreed was meant to provide relief to citizens of the beleaguered enclave.
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governments → castigate → enclave
The extent of Israel’s cooperation with the payments was reflected in a 2020 letter from Yossi Cohen, then director of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, to Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
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extent → reflect → Emir
“It is indeed a great opportunity to express our gratitude and appreciation for the humanitarian aid efforts that the State of Qatar has provided the last few years to the Gaza Strip,” Cohen wrote.
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Cohen → express → Strip
“Undoubtedly, these humanitarian efforts have played a crucial role in improving the humanitarian situation within the Gaza Strip, and ensuring stability and safety in the region.”
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efforts → play → region
The payment arrangement had the support of successive Israeli governments, the Palestinians, the Trump and Biden Administrations, the United Nations, and European powers, according to officials who served in both the Trump and Biden Administrations.
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who → have → Administrations
The flow of money from Qatar into Gaza has taken on new significance since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists stormed southern Israel, murdered some 1,200 people, and took 251 more hostage.
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terrorists → take → hostage
The worst security failure in the country’s history raised troubling questions about whether the financial lifeline helped to sustain Hamas’s grip on power and, in turn, enabled it to carry out the assault.
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lifeline → raise → assault
Since then, Qatar has been frustrated by allegations leveled by Israeli political leaders that its payments to Gaza had helped finance the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
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payments → frustrate → Holocaust
“All of Qatar’s financial assistance in Gaza has been directed to Palestinian citizens through mechanisms coordinated with the Israeli authorities and international partners.
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All → direct → authorities
Under previous aid mechanisms, all financial assistance, as well as goods such as food, medicine and fuel, passed through Israel before entering Gaza,” a spokesperson for Qatar’s International Media Office tells TIME.
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spokesperson → pass → TIME
“Nothing was delivered directly by Qatar; we provided the aid, while delivery was carried out by the United Nations’ organizations in coordination with the Israeli authorities.
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delivery → deliver → authorities
If any funding reached Hamas, as alleged by individuals and groups with political agendas against Qatar, the responsibility lies with Israel, which oversaw the delivery and created the mechanism.
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which → reach → mechanism
Critics have long argued that Netanyahu sought to sustain Hamas rule in Gaza to keep the Palestinians divided between the Islamist terror group and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, foreclosing the prospect of a unified Palestinian leadership capable of negotiating a two-state solution.
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Netanyahu → argue → solution
Netanyahu’s wager, according to these critics, was that the aid would give Hamas something to lose and would therefore help contain the group while Israel pursued normalization with the Arab world without resolving the Palestinian question.
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Israel → accord → question
Instead, as Israel moved closer to a historic agreement with Saudi Arabia, Hamas launched an assault that upended the region, plunging it into war.
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that → move → war
The Prime Minister’s office declined to comment for this story.
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office → decline → story
The documents now give Israelis a fuller accounting of a policy that preceded the catastrophe, as they prepare to render a verdict on the man who presided over both.
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who → give → both
“It was a policy failure on our part born of good intentions that multiple prime ministers kept going,” says one former Israeli defense official.
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official → bear → intentions
He was the one who championed and accelerated the program, his government was in charge of the way it was run, and now we know as a society that we can never afford to make a mistake like that again.”
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we → champion → that
Ehud Olmert was still prime minister when Qatar began sending money to Gaza in 2007, after Hamas won control of the coastal enclave.
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Hamas → begin → enclave
At the outset, the Israeli government was not directly involved in the transfers
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government → involve → transfers
That changed under Netanyahu.
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That → change → Netanyahu
By 2012, his government had approved a system that gave Israel a direct role in facilitating Qatari assistance: delivering food and medical supplies, determining which Palestinian families qualified for financial aid and disbursing the funds, and enabling Qatari financing to expand Gaza’s electricity supply, according to Israeli and Arab officials, as well as official documents obtained by TIME.
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families → approve → TIME
Qatar supplied the money with Israel’s approval, even as Israeli officials publicly criticized Doha for financing Hamas, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
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officials → supply → negotiations
The contradiction aggravated the Qataris, a senior official in the first Trump Administration tells TIME: Israeli officials would denounce the payments in public, then privately ask Doha to renew them.
Qatar, a gas-rich monarchy in the Persian Gulf, is accustomed to walking a fine line.
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Qatar → aggravate → line
It plays host to both the U.S. Central Command and to senior Hamas officials.
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It → play → officials
The country set up a Hamas political office in Doha at the request of the U.S. in 2011.
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country → set → 2011
In contrast to other Gulf monarchies, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar sees no threat in the Muslim Brotherhood, the political movement that spawned Hamas.
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that → see → Hamas
After Oct. 7, Qatar's government emerged as the go-between in negotiations among Israel, Hamas and Washington, where Biden Administration officials privately praised the Qataris as honest brokers.
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officials → emerge → brokers
By 2018, Qatar sought written documentation of the Israeli government’s role in the aid agreement.
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Qatar → seek → agreement
It was subsequently formalized through a trilateral mechanism involving Qatar, Israel, and the United Nations, designed to administer the aid with international and Israeli oversight.
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It → formalize → oversight
On October 2, 2018, Israel and Qatar, together with the United Nations, signed an agreement to finance fuel deliveries into Gaza.
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Israel → sign → Gaza
A spokesperson for the United Nations declined to comment for this story but referred TIME to statements the body’s special coordinator for Middle East peace, Tor Wennesland, made in 2021 acknowledging the arrangement.
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coordinator → decline → arrangement
“These efforts are vital to improving the dire socioeconomic and humanitarian situation in Gaza,” he said at a UN Security Council briefing.
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he → improve → briefing
In August 2021, Qatar signed another agreement committing $40 million to a cash assistance program that would give nearly 100,000 Palestinian households $100 per month for four months.
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that → sign → months
The arrangements were subsequently extended.
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arrangements → extend → ?
…and 56 more, not listed.
The Aporia
