UN rights council to debate Israel attack on Qatar Tuesday

GENEVA

A picture taken from a distance shows in the background the damaged building housing members of Palestinian militant group Hamas's political bureau which was targeted the previous day by an Israeli strike in Qatar's capital Doha, on Sept. 10, 2025.

The United Nations Human Rights Council said it would host an urgent debate on Tuesday on Israel's airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar.

The council said on Monday the debate would be convened after it received two official requests, one from Pakistan on behalf of member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the other from Kuwait on behalf of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

The UN council said its 10th urgent debate since its creation in 2006 would "discuss the recent military aggression carried out by the State of Israel against the State of Qatar on 9 September 2025'".

Israel targeted Hamas leaders last week in strikes on the Qatari capital, killing five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer.

U.S. President Donald Trump made careful remarks Sunday as Washington's two powerful Middle Eastern allies face a worsening rift.

"Qatar has been a very great ally. Israel and everyone else, we have to be careful. When we attack people we have to be careful," Trump told reporters.

The attack has prompted Arab and Muslim leaders - including Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas - to gather for a show of solidarity in Doha, where Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani urged the world to "stop using double standards" and hold Israel to account.

Qatar hosts the largest U.S. military base in the region.

Qatar's prime minister urged the international community on Sunday to reject "double standards" and hold Israel accountable, speaking on the eve of the emergency summit

The deadly attack — carried out by one U.S. ally on the territory of another — sparked a wave of criticism, including a rebuke from Trump, who nonetheless dispatched Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Israel in a show of support.

Monday's emergency gathering of Arab and Islamic leaders will serve as a pointed show of unity among Gulf countries and seek to pile more pressure on Israel, which is already facing mounting calls to bring an end to the war and humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"The time has come for the international community to stop using double standards and to punish Israel for all the crimes it has committed," Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told a preparatory meeting on Sunday, adding Israel's "war of extermination" in Gaza would not succeed.

"What is encouraging Israel to continue... is the silence, the inability of the international community to hold it accountable."

Among the leaders expected at Monday's summit are Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas arrived in Doha on Sunday.

It remains to be seen whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, will attend the gathering, though he visited Qatar earlier this week in a show of neighbourly solidarity.

According to Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, Monday's meeting will consider "a draft resolution on the Israeli attack on the State of Qatar".