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Edited by^W.n
Watched by Trump's eyes, Netanyahu bowed his head down and publicly apologized on behalf of Israel.
Following the tripartite call between the United States, Israel and Qatar, U.S. President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who visited the United States, stood in a press conference.
Escalation of conflicts and diplomatic crises
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) carried out an airstrike on a building in the west of Gaza City on the basis of “clearing out Hamas’ weapons warehouses.”
According to the operational report released by the Israeli military afterwards, the operation used two "Jericho- 1" short-range ballistic missiles and three F-16I fighter jets, and the planned target was ammunition storage points of Hamas-affiliated armed groups.
However, the collateral damage caused by the air strike far exceeded expectations. The Gaza office of the Qatar Red Crescent Society next to the target building was affected. Ali Al-Thani, a 32-year-old Qatar coordinator in the office, was killed on the spot and three other Palestinian staff members were injured.
This incident quickly triggered a diplomatic crisis between Qatar and Israel. Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned Israel's "reckless behavior in disregard of international law", calling it "deliberately sabotaging humanitarian aid channels", and announced the recall of charge d'affaires-level diplomats in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the suspension of five cooperation agreements with Israel in areas such as energy cooperation and Gaza reconstruction.
As an important energy exporter in the Middle East and a key ally of the United States in the Middle East, Qatar's tough response not only deprived Israel of an important humanitarian aid coordination channel, but may also affect the stability of Israel's energy supply for obtaining natural gas through Qatar.
Trump's pressure and Netanyahu's compromise
Netanyahu attended the meeting at the White House in Washington, while Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed participated via video link.
According to the minutes of the meeting subsequently released by the White House, the three parties mainly discussed three topics: "the aftermath of the accidental air strike in Gaza,""the repair of relations between Israel and Qatar," and "the resumption of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip." The core differences of the meeting focused on whether Israel needed a public apology.
At the press conference after the conference call, the atmosphere was once tense. CNN's field reporters captured several key details:
When Netanyahu began his speech, referring to “Israel’s actions are in line with its right to self-defense,” Trump suddenly turned to Netanyahu, and it was under this pressure that Netanyahu’s speech made a clear turn.
He first followed the Israeli military's previous statement and emphasized that "the target is Hamas terrorists, and intelligence verification has been carried out before the operation." However, after a pause for about 10 seconds, he changed the topic and clearly stated that "I apologize to the Prime Minister of Qatar. Israel is attacking 'terrorists', not against Qatar."
Netanyahu intentionally raised the volume of the word "sorry" in his speech, while looking down at the speech in his hand, a gesture that contrasts sharply with his previous image of "hard counterattack" at international occasions.
He added that Israel regretted the deaths of the Qatari citizen, who was not the Israeli target, and pledged to conduct a “comprehensive and transparent military investigation” into the incident, with the results being synchronized with the United States and Qatar within 72 hours.
The video showed that after Netanyahu completed his apology, Trump's physical gesture was clearly relaxed, his hands naturally bowed down, and in the subsequent speech he mentioned "the US-Israeli alliance is indestructible" and said "I believe that Israel will properly deal with the subsequent affairs and restore a constructive relationship with Qatar."
This change in attitude, seen by the outside world as an “immediate acknowledgment” of Trump’s apology to Israel, also confirms the key driving role played by the United States in the diplomatic crisis.
Israel's logic of compromise
Netanyahu’s rare public apology was not simply forced to Trump’s personal pressure, but the real choice of Israel relying on the United States in multiple areas such as security, economy and diplomacy.
This dependency was evident in 2025 and was a key reason for the Netanyahu administration to compromise.
According to the U.S. Security Cooperation Report, released by the U.S. Department of Defense in the third quarter of 2025, the United States has provided $1.2 billion in military aid to Israel over the past six months, including 600 “Hellfire” airborne missiles, 20 “Iron Dome” airborne interceptor bombs, and new aerodynamic systems for F-35I fighters.
More importantly, the real-time satellite images and electronic surveillance data provided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to Israel’s Mossad are an important basis for Israel’s positioning of Hamas targets.
Before the Gaza air strike, the Israeli military confirmed that there was "no civilian activity" in the target building based on intelligence provided by the CIA. If the United States reduces intelligence or weapons support due to a diplomatic crisis, it will directly affect the efficiency of Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has faced severe currency depreciation and withdrawal pressures since 2025, with the new shekel falling by 9 percent to the dollar and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows falling by 15 percent compared to the beginning of the year.
In this context, U.S. economic support has become the key to Israel's economic stability: the U.S. Treasury Department just approved a US$3.8 billion bilateral loan guarantee to Israel in September 2025, while pushing the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to increase Israel's Special Drawing Rights (SDR) limit to US$12 billion.
In addition, the United States is Israel’s largest export market, with bilateral trade in 2024 reaching $202 billion, of which Israel’s high-tech products (such as semiconductors, medical equipment) account for more than 40% of exports to the United States.
Netanyahu's government knows that if the conflict with Qatar causes dissatisfaction in the United States, these economic support measures may be delayed or cancelled, further aggravating the domestic economic difficulties.
Since 2025, the United Nations Security Council has held four emergency meetings on the Palestinian-Israeli issue. At three of these meetings, the United States used its veto power to block resolutions condemning Israel's "excessive use of force."
In addition, the United States has pushed NATO to include “opposition to Iran’s support for Hamas” in NATO’s collective security agenda by June 2025, providing an indirect multilateral backbone for Israeli military operations.
Israel’s refusal to compromise on the incident could weaken U.S. support on multilateral occasions, putting Israel in a more isolated diplomatic position—especially as the United States’ attitude directly determines Israel’s ability to avoid collective condemnation by the international community, as Qatar has joined forces with Gulf nations such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Qatar's demands for balance with the United States
During this three-party interaction, Qatar's clear demands and the United States 'strategic balance considerations together constituted external pressure to push Netanyahu to apologize.
As a key player in the Middle East, Qatar’s core demands are not merely “apologies” but to consolidate its humanitarian influence in the Gaza Strip and maintain its allies with the United States through the incident.
According to the Qatar Foreign Ministry’s 2024-2025 Gaza Aid Report, Qatar has provided $1.2 billion in aid to the Gaza Strip over the past two years for infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, water supply systems.
At the same time, food and medicine aid is delivered to the population of Gaza through the Red Crescent of Qatar, covering about 1.2 million people (representing 50% of the total population of Gaza).
Ali Alassani, who was killed, was responsible for coordinating Qatar’s refugee aid program in the north of Gaza, whose death directly led to the project’s suspension. Therefore, Qatar asked Israel to apologize, essentially in order to maintain its credibility among the people of Gaza and to avoid weakening Qatar’s humanitarian image due to the “Israeli mistake.”
At the same time, as an important partner of the United States in the Middle East, Qatar's cooperation with the United States covers energy, anti-terrorism, regional security and other dimensions.
Al Udeid Air Force Base in Qatar is the core hub of the U.S. Central Command in the Middle East. About 10,000 U.S. soldiers and 40 fighter planes are deployed to monitor military dynamics in Iran, Syria and other regions.
Qatar is the third largest source of liquefied natural gas imports to the United States. In 2024, its exports to the United States will reach 18 million tons, accounting for 12% of the total U.S. natural gas imports. The United States is obviously unwilling to let the Israeli-Qatar conflict affect its key cooperation with Qatar. Especially in the context of the expected rise in domestic energy prices in the United States in 2025 due to the cold wave. Stabilizing Qatar's energy supply is crucial to people's livelihood in the United States.
It is based on this strategic balance that the Trump administration took the initiative to intervene in this diplomatic crisis.
According to the information disclosed by anonymous White House officials to the Washington Post, before the tripartite conference call, Trump had a 30-minute closed-door meeting with Netanyahu alone, clearly informing that "apology is a necessary step to repair Israel-Qatar relations and an important measure to safeguard the US-Israel alliance", and suggested that if Israel refused to compromise, the United States might postpone the delivery of the next batch of Iron Dome interceptors.
This kind of pressure with "interest binding" finally prompted Netanyahu to abandon his previous tough stance and choose to apologize publicly.
conclusion
Netanyahu's public apology has taken a key step to alleviate the diplomatic crisis between Israel and Qatar, but the subsequent impact of the incident continues to ferment, which has a far-reaching impact on the situation between Palestine and Israel, the US-Israel alliance, and the relationship between the Gulf countries and Israel.