Hostage Taking

(Update on an article posted 2 days ago.). This is why we must be careful about doing business with Qatar or any other Muslim country. This is why I have been troubled by the cozying up to Qatar by both Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff.  Not the same values. Rh

“If success is not achieved this time in capturing Zionist soldiers,” Al-Sharq’s Jaber al-Harmi tweeted on Aug. 20, “then the second, third, and fourth attempts” will “add new rats to the tally.”

Aug. 28, 2025 / JNS)

The editor-in-chief of a Qatari daily that maintains close ties to Doha’s ruling family last week hailed attempts by the Hamas terror group to kidnap Israel Defense Forces soldiers in the Gaza Strip.

“If success is not achieved this time in capturing Zionist soldiers,” Al-Sharq‘s Jaber al-Harmi tweeted on Aug. 20, “then the second, third and fourth attempts will succeed, Inshallah, by adding new rats to the tally held by the heroes of [Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam] Brigades.”

Al-Harmi posted just hours after Hamas terrorists attempted to kidnap Israeli soldiers in Gaza, praising the ambush as a “qualitative operation” and lauding the perpetrators as “heroes.”

“Blessed be the hands of the heroes,” he wrote, adding: “And may the hands of the vile criminal outcasts be paralyzed.”

The post was subsequently deleted or removed from the X platform.

Over the course of the 22-month war between Israel and Hamas, al-Harmi has called for “harvesting the heads” of Israelis and praised slain Hamas senior leader Yahya Sinwar.

Qatar has served as the key mediator in hostage talks between Israel and Hamas, alongside Egypt and the United States. (Jerusalem News Service)