PNN – These days, the phrase “Qatar Gate” is constantly heard in the Israeli media, an issue that is said to have been the main reason for the dismissal of Ronen Barr, the head of the Homeland Security Agency. What is the issue of Qatar Gate and what dimensions of it have been identified so far?
In recent months, during the internal conflicts in the occupied territories and the Gaza war, a controversial case related to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office was raised, which attracted a lot of attention and has embroiled the Israeli regime to this day; a case that has become known in political circles as “Qatar Gate.”
The story of the secret connection between Netanyahu’s office and the Qatari government, also known as Qatar Gate, is a case and security issue related to the recognition by the Israeli internal security service (Shabak) of the actions of Netanyahu’s office against Israeli interests and harming the security of the regime during the Gaza war. The Shin Bet claims that senior advisors and the circle around Benjamin Netanyahu received payments from Qatar in exchange for supporting and securing Qatar’s interests in the occupied territories.
Although Qatar is one of the main supporters of the Hamas movement, the Zionist regime does not define it as an enemy country. Even in the current war situation, Qatar supports Hamas, and the headquarters of the heads of the organization’s political office is located in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Qatar’s support for Hamas is also clearly visible in the ceasefire negotiations.
The relationship between Qatar and Hamas
Qatar has always supported movements such as Hamas financially. For years, the country has been transferring funds to Gaza to finance the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, including the military wing of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and it was announced that this money was “gifted to the poorest families in the Gaza Strip in coordination with the governments of the Israeli regime and the United States.”
Between 2007 and 2014, the funding was provided and transferred without interference from the Israeli regime or the United States. After the 2014 Gaza war and until 2018, funds were sent to Gaza through the Palestinian Authority, but in 2018, the Authority refused to continue transferring funds to Gaza. Following this, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote to Qatar demanding that the money continue to be transferred in suitcases to directly finance Hamas. Steven Mnuchin, then US Treasury Secretary, also sent a letter to Qatar in this regard, pledging that the funds transferred from Qatar to the Hamas government would not be considered by the US to be financing military issues in Gaza.
The beginning of the Qatar Gate story
On November 21, 2024, Haaretz newspaper reporter Bar Peleg revealed in an article that Yonatan Urich, who served as Benjamin Netanyahu’s media advisor, was working on a campaign run by Qatar in 2022, while working for the Israeli company Perception. The campaign aimed to improve Qatar’s international image ahead of the 2022 World Cup, amid criticism the country had faced in international circles for human rights violations.
Yonatan Urich denied the allegations, but in February 2025, Roy Yanovsky, a reporter for the Israeli Channel Eleven, reported that he had more documents related to the Qatari campaign, which included a focus on Jewish and Israeli communities, but Urich continued to deny the connection.
Zionist journalist Nir Davuri also claimed to have received fabricated information from Feldstein aimed at improving Qatar’s international image, and even published some of it.
Dr. Udi Levy, a former senior Mossad official, claimed on February 12, 2025, that Qatar had approached another senior official in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office to hire a senior Israeli lawyer to handle the claims of Israeli families against Doha.
A day later, a report was published that Brigadier General (retired) Eli Ben-Meir, who headed the investigation team into “Southern Command intelligence prior to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm,” was one of the owners of Covis, a company that worked to advance Qatari interests among high-ranking Israeli security officials.
Ravio Drucker reported on Israel’s Channel 13 that an American consultant working for the Qatari government paid Eli Feldstein for his actions and services to improve Qatar’s international image in Israel. According to Drucker, Feldstein helped organize a trip to Qatar by Jerusalem Post editor Zvika Klein, which included meetings with senior Qatari government officials and the dissemination of Qatari government messages in Israeli media.
Qatar Gate margins for Netanyahu
Following the revelations, opposition leader Yair Lapid and Democratic Party Chairman Yair Golan called for an investigation into the prime minister and members of his office for security crimes, which Golan said could amount to treason against Israel.
Former senior Israeli security and military officials released a letter detailing the incident and calling for Netanyahu and his advisers to be investigated for treason, saying the incident “may pose a real threat to national security.” Among the signatories of the letter are Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister and Chief of Staff of the Army, seven reserve generals, and former Shin Bet deputy Aryeh Pelman.
This went so far that Netanyahu fired the Shin Bet chief. In recent weeks, tensions between the Israeli prime minister and the Shin Bet chief have escalated to unprecedented levels, and for the first time in Israeli history, the Shin Bet chief was dismissed. After Netanyahu announced the dismissal of Ronen Bar, opposition leader Yair Lapid said in an interview that the dismissal was a result of an investigation into the incident.
Former police Chief Roni Al-Sheikh announced on March 17, 2025, that in light of Ronen Barr’s dismissal, “the level of suspicion against Netanyahu is increasing in relation to the Qatar Gate case.”
Despite the revelations made in the occupied territories and the passage of several months since the case was raised, there has still not been a broad and comprehensive investigation into the Qatar Gate case, and the main reason for this is Netanyahu’s obstructionism and his efforts to prevent the dimensions of this issue from being revealed. There is uncertainty about the extent of the relationship between the staff of the Prime Minister’s Office, or even the Prime Minister himself, and Qatari individuals, and how far this relationship has gone, and whether it has influenced the Israeli Prime Minister’s decisions.
The Qatar Gate case, due to its numerous side effects, can be considered one of the most specific issues and cases that have been covered by the media in the history of the formation of the Zionist regime. Despite the ambiguity surrounding this case, experts and analysts estimate that the Qatar Gate case goes far beyond what has been revealed at present and that with the start of a full investigation, we should expect much broader sensitive issues and topics to be revealed.