Why Turkey and Qatar Should Be Kept Away From Gaza

by Khaled Abu Toameh • December 9, 2025 at 5:00 am

One of the keynote speakers at the conference [hosted by Turkey] was Khaled Mashaal, a senior Hamas leader based in Qatar.
Mashaal declared that the time has come for the Muslim nation to "commit to the liberation of Jerusalem." He defined this act as the symbol and strategic key to "liberating all of Palestine" -- meaning the destruction of Israel and replacing it with an Islamist state.
As the conference was underway, Israeli authorities revealed documents that show that Hamas is operating a system of Gazan moneychangers who live in Turkey and exploit the country's financial infrastructure to secretly finance terrorism.
The closing statement of the conference asserted the necessity of waging Jihad (war in the service of Islam)....
Turkey in addition, is the main sponsor behind the new president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly an al-Qaeda leader known as Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, leader of the jihadist Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham militia. Is Turkey possibly trying to position itself on either side of Israel to attack it after Trump leaves office?
Is Trump's selling arms to Qatar and Turkey in fact unwittingly preparing them to launch such an attack?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is evidently concerned about Qatar and Turkey playing a central role in the Gaza Strip.
Allowing Turkey or Qatar to play any role in the Gaza Strip means empowering Hamas to reassert its control of the coastal area and rearm and regroup. Turkey and Qatar are not going to participate in any effort to disarm Hamas or destroy terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, as they openly state, they will ensure that Hamas continues to rule the Gaza Strip and pursue its Jihad to destroy Israel.

Allowing Turkey or Qatar to play any role in the Gaza Strip means empowering Hamas to reassert its control of the coastal area and rearm and regroup. Turkey and Qatar are not going to participate in any effort to disarm Hamas or destroy terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, as they openly state, they will ensure that Hamas continues to rule the Gaza Strip and pursue its Jihad to destroy Israel. Pictured: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (then serving as prime minister) meets Khaled Mashaal (C), the Hamas chief in exile, and Hamas' then leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh (L), in Ankara on June 18, 2013. (Photo by Yasin Bulbul/Turkish Prime Minister's Press Office/AFP via Getty Images)

In early December, Turkey hosted a conference called "Pledge to Jerusalem," under the slogan "Towards Renewing the Will of the Ummah in Confronting Liquidation and Genocide." According to reports in the Arabic media, the conference was attended by "a number of Arab and Islamic organizations."

The conference, according to a report by the Hamas-affiliated Quds Press media outlet:

"The conference aims to 'unify the efforts of the Ummah to criminalize genocide and break the siege, stand against plans of forced displacement and annexation of the West Bank, and renew the covenant to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque from the dangers of Judaization...'
At the conclusion of the second day, participants aim to issue the 'Covenant for Jerusalem Document,' described as a comprehensive charter affirming the constants of the Ummah and the choice of resistance, according to the conference vision obtained by Quds Press.

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No Stabilization in Gaza Without Dismantling Hamas

by Ahmed Charai • December 9, 2025 at 4:00 am

An International Stabilization Force that enters Gaza while Hamas remains armed will merely stabilize Hamas itself.
A stabilization force that cannot confront the terrorists who rule Gaza is not a peacekeeping mechanism; it is a political anesthetic. It buys time for Hamas to rest, reconstitute its battalions, rebuild its tunnels, and prepare for the next war. It allows the group to deepen its grip on the population and to rewrite the narrative so that its catastrophic decisions appear as heroic resistance.
One cannot reconstruct a city by empowering the people who destroyed it.
On December 6, 2025, in a speech delivered in Turkey, Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal declared that Hamas will never disarm, never renounce its weapons, never accept external oversight of Gaza, never permit any force, international or otherwise, to constrain its military operations.
The Muslim Brotherhood's narrative of "resistance" that thrives on perpetual conflict... They do not honor Islam; they distort it into a justification for violence. And the Iranian people — one of the most cultured and brilliant civilizations on earth — deserve better than rulers who export fires to Arab lands while extinguishing hope at home.
Some governments.... speak of stability while pursuing a very different goal: preserving Hamas as a tool of influence.
Trump did not indulge fantasies about Hamas. He built a plan based on the recognition that peace requires confronting those who reject peace. His work was a reminder that leadership matters.
The time has come to speak with clarity: Gaza cannot be rebuilt while Hamas exists. Peace cannot be built while Hamas rules. And an International Stabilization Force that does not understand this is not stabilizing the region — it is stabilizing its nightmares.

An International Stabilization Force (ISF) that enters Gaza while Hamas remains armed will merely stabilize Hamas itself. An ISF that cannot confront the terrorists who rule Gaza is not a peacekeeping mechanism; it is a political anesthetic. It buys time for Hamas to rest, reconstitute its battalions, rebuild its tunnels, and prepare for the next war. (AI image generated by Google Gemini)

It is time to confront one of the most dangerous illusions of our time: the belief that an International Stabilization Force for Gaza can bring order, reconstruction, or peace without dismantling Hamas. A force that enters Gaza while Hamas remains armed will merely stabilize Hamas itself. It will become, in practice, an International Stabilization Force for Hamas, a shield that protects the very organization that plunged Gaza into tragedy.

No serious strategist can pretend that disarmament is optional. A stabilization force that cannot confront the terrorists who rule Gaza is not a peacekeeping mechanism; it is a political anesthetic. It buys time for Hamas to rest, reconstitute its battalions, rebuild its tunnels, and prepare for the next war. It allows the group to deepen its grip on the population and to rewrite the narrative so that its catastrophic decisions appear as heroic resistance.

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