A top Qatari official who served as ambassador to the United States has repeatedly praised slain Hamas leaders as “martyrs,” called on the terror group to pursue “resistance until victory,” and denounced Israel as the “enemy of humanity.”
Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari—Qatar’s state minister who bears the cabinet-level rank of deputy prime minister—served as the Gulf state’s ambassador to the United States, France, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization before assuming his current position. He has repeatedly used his X account to glorify Hamas and vilify Israel.
Days after Israel assassinated former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in July 2024, Al-Kawari wrote on X that “Qatar embraces the martyr Ismail Haniyeh as a fighter” and praised Qatar for “embracing the oppressed and supporting the wronged.” Haniyeh had been living in Qatar before his death.
“Whoever saw or knew the late Haniyeh knew him to be a man of pure faith, simple and approachable, a leader who was close to the people, kind-hearted, and with a smile of contentment that never left his face, even in the darkest of circumstances,” the deputy prime minister continued.
Al-Kawari also issued a statement on his X account after Israeli forces killed another former Hamas leader and the mastermind of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, Yahya Sinwar, in October 2024.
“The occupier is mistaken if he imagines that the absence of a leader will weaken the Palestinian people or lead them to surrender their destiny,” he wrote. “A leader is martyred, another takes his place, and the resistance continues until victory.”
In April 2024, when Iran launched ballistic missile attacks against Israel, Al-Kawari offered his support.
“Israel is certainly the number one enemy of humanity and it seeks to eliminate a people from existence,” he wrote. “With the current war of extermination that is taking place under the eyes of the world in all its details, it has reached a level of tyranny, arrogance and contempt for values and principles of international conventions that exceeds all description.”
He framed the strike as an opportunity for Iran and the Arab world to become closer.
“By restoring Iran’s credibility in the Arab world, it would make it a true ally in our unified stance against Israel,” he continued.
Al-Kawari’s first statement on X after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack was a post in which he described the massacres as “legitimate” and offered “a salute of admiration and solidarity” to the terror group.
The revelations of Al-Kawari’s comments come as the Gulf state has continued to play both sides of the Israel-Hamas war. The Qatari government has presented itself as a neutral mediator between the Jewish state and its terrorist enemy, publicly rebuking Hamas’s attacks on Israeli troops during the current ceasefire, but has hosted Hamas leadership within its borders since 2012.
Qatar has sought to play a significant role in postwar Gaza, aspirations that have drawn objections from Israel over the Qatari government’s history of backing Hamas. Just this week, Israel vetoed a plan that would have allowed Qatari troops to participate in a mission to retrieve the bodies of hostages in Gaza.
The deputy prime minister is not the only Qatari official to offer rhetorical support for Hamas. Mohamed Jaham Al-Kuwari, the Qatari ambassador to Switzerland and former ambassador to the United States, has consistently used his X account to amplify anti-Israel talking points and sympathetic portrayals of Hamas even before Oct. 7.
When Israel killed Sinwar last October, Al-Kuwari cited a Telegraph report to state that “the video clip that documented the last moments of his life made him a hero.” He referred to a quote from a Gazan woman who said she was “proud of him because he was killed fighting on the battlefield and not hiding in the tunnels.”
He accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza, writing of Israel subjecting Gazans “to the ugliest Zionist crimes and massacres of extermination” just 10 days after Oct. 7, and condemned “unprecedented Arab impotence” in the face of Israel’s “war of extermination” less than a week after the attack.
On Oct. 7 itself, Al-Kuwari argued that Palestinian prisoners in Israel—largely incarcerated for terrorist crimes—should receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
In May 2021, during Palestinian riots in Jerusalem, Al-Kuwari expressed his support for the rioters and praised the Palestinian “fedayeen”—or “freedom fighters”—quoting deceased Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ghassan Kanafani to romanticize a culture of terrorism.
Other Qatari government officials have offered praise for Hamas. Majed al-Ansari, spokesman for the Qatari foreign ministry and adviser to the prime minister, has expressed support for suicide bombings and rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians. Qatar’s other deputy prime minister, Minister of State for Defense Affairs Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, wrote that “We are all Hamas” and urged his fellow Qatari leaders to “plan how to influence the decision-makers in the U.S.”
Various Qatari figures offered praise for both Haniyeh and Sinwar after their assassinations. Hassan bin Abdulla Al-Ghanim, the speaker of Qatar’s Shura Council, delivered a glowing tribute to Haniyeh for “embodying the highest meanings of sacrifice and determination” and “defending the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.” Lolwah Al-Khater, the Gulf state’s education minister, described Haniyeh as a “righteous servant” and man of “miracles.” She also allegedly wrote a poem glorifying Sinwar after his death.
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, mother of Qatar’s emir and the head of the Qatar Foundation—which has been intimately involved in higher education in the United States for two decades—wrote after Sinwar’s death that “the name Yahya means the one who lives … they thought him dead but he lives. Like his namesake, Yahya bin Zakariya, he will live on and they will be gone.”
Representatives of the Qatari government did not respond to Washington Free Beacon requests for comment.
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