Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert harshly criticized the Israeli attack in Qatar last week in an interview with the anti-Israeli network Al Jazeera about the fact that in the attempt to assassinate senior Hamas figure Khalil Al-Hayya, his son and wife died.
"There are senior Israeli officials who need to be tried for their crimes. The Israeli government gave orders to kill Palestinians. Killing the negotiators means that you don't want negotiations and you don't want to release the hostages. I want to say that I'm sorry for Al-Hayya's son and his wife - they shouldn't have been victims. We kill terrorists and we will continue to fight terror," Olmert claimed.
He stated that he does not represent a government position because he opposes the government and is working to overthrow it. He took advantage of the platform he was given to attack the prime minister, saying, "Netanyahu was a friend of Qatar for many years and cooperated with them in financing Hamas while it was suffering from major financial problems. "Netanyahu does not represent us and does not represent Israel. I am making every effort to bring him down."
However, Olmert made it clear that in his view all Hamas members are terrorists who should not be pitied, but according to him, two conditions must be considered before eliminating senior figures. "The first condition is the timing," he said, "and here we are talking about an attack that took place at a time when negotiations were underway to release hostages. I believe that the timing was completely inappropriate, because the State of Israel's top priority should be the release of the hostages."
The second condition, he claimed, is the location. "I am not satisfied with Qatar's policy, it is nothing new," he said. "I do not support Qatar's efforts to assist a terrorist organization, but at the same time Israel is cooperating with Qatar to release the hostages and is using its services. The Israeli delegation goes to Doha and returns from there. I do not think that the attack should have been carried out there, while violating Qatar's sovereignty."
