U.S. Joins U.N. Security Council’s Criticism of Israeli Strike in Qatar

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday expressed deep concern over the Israeli strike in Qatar in a statement endorsed by all of its 15 members, including the United States, displaying a rare unity on issues related to Israel.

The statement did not mention Israel by name, but there was no mistaking the country being singled out for criticism.

“Council members underscore the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar,” the statement read. “They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar, in line with the principles of the U.N. charter.”

The Security Council called the emergency meeting to discuss the Israeli bombing of a residential compound in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on Tuesday that targeted a meeting of senior Hamas officials.

Israel has said it will go after its enemies, including those responsible for the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, wherever it finds them. But the strike in Qatar, which has played a key role in mediations between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire in the Gaza war, may have been a step too far for its closest ally, the United States.

The United States generally blocks actions against Israel at the United Nations, but it did not do so on Thursday. Qatar is also a close ally, and hosts the American military’s regional command center.

“Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” President Trump wrote on social media after the strike.

Dorothy Shea, the acting U.S. ambassador to the U.N., echoed that language at the Security Council on Thursday, though she also said that eliminating Hamas was a “worthy goal.”

Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon, told the Council that the sole targets of the Israeli attack were Hamas “terrorists” and said that they had masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks. “That strike,” he said, “sends a message that should echo across this chamber: There is no sanctuary for terrorists. Not in Gaza, not in Tehran, not in Doha.”

For a Security Council statement to be issued, all 15 members must sign off on the text. The United States has historically shielded Israel from statements of condemnation by not endorsing them.

The attack in Qatar left six people dead, including civilians, but did not kill any senior Hamas officials.

It has rattled the region. Many Arab countries, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, had calculated that a close alliance with Washington — and especially warm ties with Mr. Trump — would shield them from Israel’s military action.

The emergency meeting was requested by Qatar, Algeria, Pakistan and Somalia. The prime minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, traveled to New York to attend.

Mr. al-Thani told the Council that the area that Israel struck in Doha was residential, and that the attack had “terrorized” civilians living there. It had also been a designated residential area for Hamas’s mediating team and its location was known to the parties of the conflict, he said.

“This attack puts the international community before a test,” Mr. al-Thani said. “Israel, led by blusterous extremists, has gone beyond any borders, any limitations when it comes to behavior. We are unable to predict what Israel will do — how can we host Israeli representatives when they have committed this attack?”

Algeria’s ambassador to the U.N., Amar Bendjama, the only Arab representative on the Council, said that Israel had repeatedly gotten away with launching strikes on nations like Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and now Qatar with little accountability.

“Israel behaves as if laws do not exist, as if borders are an illusion, as if sovereignty itself is a dispensable notion,” Mr. Bendjama said.

Many Council members, already frustrated over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s newest incursion into Gaza City, accused Israel of “war mongering” and “hampering negotiations” for peace.

“It is lamentable that the government of Israel chose to pursue another act of hostility,” said South Korea’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Sangjin Kim, who holds the rotating presidency of the Council this month.