Israel participates along with Qatar in international Air Force exercise in Greece

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) is participating in the large annual multinational air drill hosted by the NATO member state Greece. The IAF decided this year to dispatch its advanced Oron intelligence aircraft alongside mainly allies from NATO states.

This year’s participants include the United States, France, Israel, India, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Slovenia and Montenegro. Furthermore, Cyprus sent supporting personnel, while Slovakia and Bahrain have dispatched observers to Greece. 

Israel did not participate in the 2023 drill due to diplomatic tensions with the NATO member state, Turkey. Israel also skipped last year’s drill due to the ongoing war against the Iran-backed terror proxies, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

This year’s drill also includes Qatar, a Gulf Arab state that is known to have close financial and ideological ties to the terrorist organization Hamas. The Qatari Air Force decided to dispatch American-made F-15 fighter jets to the exercise in Greece. 

Unlike the UAE and Bahrain, which normalized their ties with Israel in 2020 with the American-brokered Abraham Accords, Qatar does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel and does not officially recognize it as a sovereign state.

Furthermore, Qatar has acted both as the financial bankroller of Hamas terrorism and a broker in the ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

Despite this, Israel and Qatar have engaged in various forms of unofficial and indirect interactions over the years.

The complex, unofficial ties between the two countries came under increased scrutiny on Monday when the Israel Police arrested two of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior aides in the so-called Qatargate Affair.

The two aides, Jonathan Urich and Eli Feldstein, are being investigated for allegedly accepting paid roles to promote Qatari interests around the time of the 2022 World Cup. 

On Monday, Netanyahu faced a backlash after he referred to his aides as “hostages.”

“I understood that there was a political investigation here, but I didn't know to what extent. They are holding Jonathan Urich and Eli Feldstein hostage,” Netanyahu stated. 

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum blasted the prime minister’s comments, stating that the families of the real hostages in Gaza were “angry and hurt by the unfortunate choice of words by the prime minister.”

“Netanyahu, you are confused. Let me remind you, the real hostages are our 59 brothers and sisters who have been held in Gaza for 542 days,” the Forum said in an official statement. 

Some of Netanyahu’s critics argue that he facilitated the transfer of Qatari money to Gaza, which enabled the terrorist group to expand into the threat it became on Oct. 7, 2023. Netanyahu has denied the accusations, saying that Qatari financial assistance was earmarked for helping keep Gaza financially afloat.