Doha

UN chief says 700 million people live in extreme poverty as Qatar calls for doubling efforts to support Palestinians.

Doha, Qatar – A declaration of intent to fight deepening global inequality is a “booster shot for development”, the head of the United Nations declares.

At the Second World Summit for Social Development in Qatar on Tuesday, the president of the UN General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, announced the adoption of the Doha Political Declaration.

“Social development and inclusion is essential for strong societies,” she said, adding that the declaration must “end social injustice and guarantee dignity for everyone, prioritising a people-first approach.”

In a keynote speech, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on global leaders to unite behind the “bold people’s plan”.

“It’s unconscionable that nearly 700 million people still live in extreme poverty while the richest 1 per cent own nearly half of global wealth,” he told the delegations.

“It’s intolerable that almost four billion people lack access to any form of social protection at all.”

The summit in Qatar’s capital, Doha, was convened to build on the development goals established 30 years ago during the Copenhagen Summit.

According to the UN, about 40 heads of state, 170 ministerial-level representatives, heads of NGOs and 14,000 delegates from around the world were expected to attend.

The declaration calls for commitments in several areas, including poverty eradication, access to “decent work”, social integration, gender equality and climate action.

Guterres noted the progress that has been made over the past three decades.

“Over one billion people have escaped extreme poverty. Global unemployment is at a near-historic low. Access to healthcare, education and social protection has dramatically expanded. People are living longer, and child and maternal mortality have declined. And more girls are attending school with rising graduation rates for all students,” he said.

However, he insisted that more challenges must be faced, saying the Second World Summit “opens at a moment of high global uncertainty, divisions, conflicts and widespread human suffering”.

“Developing countries are not getting the level of support they need,” he warned. “We are not moving fast enough to mitigate the volatility and outright destruction wrought by a warming planet.”

Peace and stability

Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, opened the event by calling for sustained efforts to support the Palestinian people amid the devastation of Israel’s two-year war on Gaza.

“It’s impossible to achieve social development in any society without peace and stability,” he said, adding that only “constant peace, not temporary settlements, is just peace.”

Calling on the international community to increase support for reconstruction, he added: “It goes without saying that the Palestinian people need all forms of aid to be able to recover from the devastation” caused by “the apartheid system in Palestine”.

The UN estimates more than $70bn is needed to rebuild Gaza.

Addressing reporters on the sidelines later, Guterres said he was “deeply concerned” by “continued violations of the ceasefire” in the enclave.

“They must stop, and all parties must abide by the decisions of the first phase of the peace agreement,” he demanded.

The emir also condemned the war crimes being carried out in Sudan.

“We express our collective shock at the horrific atrocities committed in the city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region and reaffirm our condemnation of these acts in the strongest terms,” Sheikh Tamim said after the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group captured the capital of North Darfur State last week.

Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government have agreed to an immediate ceasefire, mediated by Qatar and Turkiye. The agreement was reached after a week of deadly clashes and strikes along their disputed border.

South Asian neighbours also agreed to hold follow-up meetings in coming days to ensure peace deal’s implementation.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire after talks mediated by Qatar and Turkiye following a week of fierce and deadly clashes along their disputed border.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said early on Sunday that Afghanistan and Pakistan had agreed to the ceasefire “and the establishment of mechanisms to consolidate lasting peace and stability between the two countries”.

Doha said the two countries also agreed to hold follow-up meetings in the coming days “to ensure the sustainability of the ceasefire and verify its implementation in a reliable and sustainable manner”.

Earlier, both sides said they were holding peace talks in Doha on Saturday as they sought a way forward, after clashes killed dozens and wounded hundreds in the worst violence between the two South Asian neighbours since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021.

Statement | Pakistan and Afghanistan Agree to an Immediate Ceasefire During a Round of Negotiations in Doha#MOFAQatar pic.twitter.com/fPXvn6GaU6

— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Qatar (@MofaQatar_EN) October 18, 2025

“As promised, negotiations with the Pakistani side will take place today in Doha,” Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had said, adding that Kabul’s negotiating team, led by Defence Minister Mullah Muhammad Yaqoob, had arrived in the Qatari capital.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said earlier that the country’s defence minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, had led discussions with representatives of Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership.

“The talks will focus on immediate measures to end cross-border terrorism against Pakistan emanating from Afghanistan and restore peace and stability along the Pak-Afghan border,” the Foreign Office said.

Cross-border fighting between the one-time allies and Pakistani air strikes along their contested 2,600km (1,600-mile) frontier were triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in rebels who had stepped up cross-border attacks in Pakistan, saying the fighters were operating from safe havens in Afghanistan.

The Taliban has denied giving haven to armed groups to attack Pakistan, and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan and sheltering ISIL (ISIS)-linked fighters who have undermined the country’s stability and sovereignty.

Islamabad has denied Kabul’s accusations. Pakistan has accused Kabul of allowing armed groups to reside inside Afghanistan and wage war for years against the Pakistani state in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with their strict brand of Islamic governance system.

On Friday, a suicide attack near the border killed seven Pakistani soldiers and wounded 13, security officials said.

“The Afghan regime must rein in the proxies who have sanctuaries in Afghanistan and are using Afghan soil to perpetrate heinous attacks inside Pakistan,” Pakistani Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir said on Saturday, addressing a graduation ceremony of cadets.

A senior Hamas official has spoken publicly for the first time since Israel attacked the group’s leadership in Qatar, describing to Al Jazeera the moment of the attack and how the officials managed to barely escape.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington will encourage Doha to continue to play a constructive role in Gaza during a press conference with Israel’s PM in Jerusalem on Monday. The comments come after last week’s Israeli attack on Qatar’s capital which targeted Hamas leaders.

Arab and Islamic foreign ministers are gathering in Doha after Israel’s unprecedented missile strikes on Qatar that killed five Hamas members and a Qatari officer. The summit aims to formulate a collective regional response, with leaders warning Israel’s attack crossed ‘all red lines’, as Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar explains.

Leaders from across the region are gathering in the Qatari capital to discuss a formal response to Israel’s strikes on Doha last week, which it said targeted Hamas leadership and reverberated through the Middle East and beyond.

Israel launched the missiles as Hamas members gathered in their Doha office to discuss a deal proposed by United States President Donald Trump to end Israel’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza.

The attack came hours after Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Israel had accepted the Trump proposal, which would release all 48 captives held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a ceasefire.

Israel killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security official in the attack, although it did not kill the Hamas leadership it said it was targeting.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the attack on Thursday.

How is Qatar responding?

Qatar has invited leaders from Arab and Islamic countries for meetings that will culminate in the emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that “the summit will discuss a draft resolution on the Israeli attack” that signifies another instance of “state terrorism practised by Israel”.

A meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday will work on the draft, which is expected to add to the international chorus of condemnation for the Israeli attack.

Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who met Trump in New York on Friday, said Qatar will pursue a collective response to the attack, which has put the entire region at risk.

Qatar has long had a mediation role, working to end Israel’s war on Gaza and generate regional unity.

In the meetings on Sunday and Monday, it will leverage pro-Palestinian sentiment and opposition to Israel’s attacks that have been expressed across the region.

Who is attending?

Leaders from the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the 22-member Arab League will attend.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian is confirmed to attend, as are Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

On Saturday, Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani issued what he called a “warning to Islamic governments” and said they must “form a ‘joint operations room’ against the madness” of Israel instead of resorting to mere statements.

The full list of dignitaries in attendance on Monday is yet to be confirmed.

What can come out of the summit?

At the summit, a strongly worded statement against Israel is guaranteed.

The leaders will discuss potential ways they could take action to address Israeli aggression across the region.

Israel has also bombed Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen as its genocidal war on Gaza and military raids on the occupied West Bank continue relentlessly.

The sense of security enjoyed by Qatar and neighbouring states has been shattered, which could prompt them to seek new security or defence arrangements with the US that go beyond buying arms.

There are political considerations at play, however, especially with Washington still offering ironclad support to Israel despite growing international frustration.

As ministers and leaders arrived in Doha on Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders. Among other things, they are likely to discuss plans to annex large parts of the West Bank.

That plan has been described by the United Arab Emirates, a member of the US-sponsored Abraham Accords to normalise ties with Israel, as a “red line” that would undermine the agreement.

Saudi Arabia and other regional states being eyed by Israel and the US as future members of the Accords are seen by analysts to be the furthest they have been for years from normalising relations with Israel.

Among the tools that states have at their disposal to respond to rogue aggression are acts like downgrading diplomatic ties.

Arab states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE also have vast financial capabilities at their disposal as leverage, as well as large sovereign wealth funds with international investments that could impose curbs on Israel, including trade limitations.

Qatar has said part of its response will be legal, including through pursuing Israeli violations of international law.

Prior to talks with Trump, Sheikh Mohammed met US Secretary of State Rubio, who is heading to Israel to pledge continued support.

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani is meeting United States President Donald Trump in New York in the wake of Israel’s deadly strike on Doha this week.

Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the country’s foreign minister, has been engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity in the US since Israel’s attack on a Hamas meeting in Doha on Tuesday, which killed a Qatari security official and five Hamas members who were discussing a new deal proposed by Trump to end the Gaza war.

Ahead of Friday’s dinner meeting with the US president, Sheikh Mohammed met US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House, where they discussed Israel’s strikes and the US-Qatar security arrangement, according to Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett.

Washington counts Qatar, which hosts its Al Udeid airbase in the desert outside Doha, as a strong Gulf ally.

Trump has already said he was “very unhappy” about Israel’s targeting of Qatar, which appeared designed to derail ongoing Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks.

“The concern is that the relationship between Qatar and the United States has become increasingly complicated as a result of those strikes, so they’re looking for a path forward on both of those issues,” said Al Jazeera’s Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC.

Halkett said Friday’s scheduled meeting with Trump would “continue the conversations regarding Israel’s attack on Doha earlier this week and the negotiations to end Israel’s war on Gaza”.

The location and time of the dinner remain unclear, but Trump is currently in New York and is staying at his eponymous Manhattan tower.

Balancing act

This week has also seen the Trump administration engaged in a balancing act between Middle East allies and Israel.

The issue was brought to the fore on Thursday, when the US – which traditionally shields Israel on the international stage – joined fellow members of the United Nations Security Council in condemning the country for its attack on Qatar.

But in what appears to be a show of continued support for Israel, Rubio will arrive in Israel this weekend for a two-day visit before attending an upcoming UN summit on September 22, where a number of Western countries plan to recognise a Palestinian state.

That meeting signals growing international momentum towards a viable post-conflict settlement for Israel and Palestine, which was manifest at Friday’s meeting of the UN General Assembly, which endorsed a resolution pushing for a revival of the two-state solution.

France and Saudi Arabia have been instrumental in pushing for “collective action to end the war in Gaza, to achieve a just, peaceful and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, which has so far killed at least 64,756 people.

During his visit to Israel, Rubio will speak to leaders about “our commitment to fight anti-Israel actions, including unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state that rewards Hamas terrorism”, State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement.

“He will also emphasise our shared goals: ensuring Hamas never rules over Gaza again and bringing all the hostages home,” Pigott added.

Mourners gathered in Qatar’s capital Doha to pray for six victims of Israel’s attack, including a 22-year-old policeman. The strike has been described as unprecedented for the Gulf.

Israeli missiles hit Qatar’s capital, Doha, on Tuesday, with Israel saying it was targeting Hamas leaders, as they met to discuss ceasefire efforts in Gaza. Qatar called it a breach of sovereignty. With global condemnation mounting, what does this unprecedented attack mean for the negotiations and the people in Gaza?

US President Donald Trump has said Israel’s strike on Hamas targets in Qatar “does not advance Israel or America’s goals”, adding that he feels “very badly” about the location of the attack.

In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump said he was notified that Israel was attacking Hamas in the capital Doha by the US military, but it was “unfortunately, too late to stop the attack”.

“This was a decision made by [Israel’s] Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” he said, before praising Qatar as a “strong ally and friend”.

Six people were killed in the strike, Hamas said, including one member of the Qatari security forces, but the group said its leadership team survived.

The Israeli military said it had conducted a “precise strike” targeted at Hamas senior leaders using “precise munitions”. Israeli media reported the operation involved 15 Israeli fighter jets, which fired 10 munitions against a single target.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he authorised the strike and there would be “no immunity” for Hamas leaders.

In his statement on Tuesday, President Trump issued a rare rebuke of Netanyahu. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” he wrote.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said earlier that “The president also spoke to the emir and prime minister of Qatar and thanked them for their support and friendship to our country.”

“He assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil,” she added.

Trump said, however, that “eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal” and reiterated that he wants “ALL of the hostages, and the bodies of the dead released and this War to END, NOW!”.

The attack took place on early Tuesday afternoon, with footage showing a badly damaged building in Doha.

Qatar’s foreign ministry condemned the strike “in the strongest possible terms,” and said the attack was a “blatant violation” of international law.

It later said that Qatari officials were not notified of the Israeli strike ahead of time.

“The communication received from one of the US officials came during the sound of explosions,” said Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari in a post on X.

Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political bureau since 2012 and played a key role in facilitating indirect negotiations between the group and Israel since the 7 October attacks.

It has also been a close ally of the US. Around 10,000 American troops are stationed at a US airbase in al-Udeid, just outside Doha. In May, Trump announced a “historic” economic agreement signed between the two countries that he said is valued at least $1.2 trillion (£890bn).

Qatar has also recently gifted Trump a plane – valued at $400m – as an “unconditional gift” to be used as the new Air Force One, the official aircraft of the US president.

Hamas said their negotiating team in Doha survived Tuesday’s attack, adding that the action “confirms beyond doubt that Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement” for peace.

It said it holds the US administration “jointly responsible” due to its ongoing support of Israel.

The office for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu put out a statement shortly after the strike, which said the attack was “a wholly independent Israeli operation”.

“Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility,” the statement said.

A few days prior to the attack, Hamas said it welcomed “some ideas” from the US on how to reach a Gaza ceasefire, and that it was discussing how to turn them “into a comprehensive agreement”.

In its statement, the White House said Trump believes the “unfortunate” attack “could serve as an opportunity for peace,” and that Netanyahu had expressed to him after the attack that “he wants to make peace and quickly”.

Israel had no intention of covering up its involvement in Tuesday’s attack on Doha – within minutes of the explosions being heard in the Qatari capital, Israeli officials were claiming responsibility in the media.

And not long after, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly took responsibility for the attack on several Hamas leaders.

“Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility,” the statement said.

The attack marks yet another escalation by Israel – the latest in a series that has included launching a war against Iran, occupying more land in Syria, killing the leadership of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, and the killing of more than 64,500 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since its war there began.

But this attack marks a new frontier in what Israel believes it can get away with: a direct attack on a United States ally – Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the region – that has been leading negotiations to secure a ceasefire deal and release Israeli captives from Gaza.

“We’ve seen that Israel fires in crowded and residential areas and in capitals across the Middle East as it pleases,” Mairav Zonszein, the International Crisis Group’s Senior Israel Analyst, told Al Jazeera. “And it continues to do so, and will continue to do so, [if no one] takes serious action to stop it.”

The attack took many by surprise because it went beyond what Palestinian defence analyst Hamze Attar called, “traditional Mossad [Israeli intelligence] work”, such as assassinations through car bombs, poison, or gun or sniper attacks.

“I don’t think … the Qataris expected that Israel would bomb Doha,” he said.

Cinzia Bianco, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that Israel’s previous attacks around the world meant “the Qataris knew that they were not completely off limits, but obviously no one anticipated a direct attack, and just the defiance and unhinged recklessness of it surprised, I would say, everyone”.

Israel has so far received little pushback for its actions from the US – both under current President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden. In the first comments from the White House on the attack, a statement from Trump said that while the US had been informed of the attack, Israel had carried out the attack unilaterally. The statement added that the attack did not advance Israeli or American goals, but that hitting Hamas was a “worthy goal”.

“I don’t think, analytically speaking, that Israel would carry out any such attack without an American green light,” said Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara. “If America indeed did not give a green light, we should be hearing a condemnation coming any minute … The Trump administration needs to condemn this behaviour by its client, Israel, while [ceasefire] negotiations are going on.”

End of ceasefire negotiations?

Those ceasefire negotiations are discussing a deal that Trump has pushed for himself, but with the caveat that the US president has taken to issuing his own threats towards Hamas and Gaza should a deal not be reached.

That has implied that the Palestinian group has been the main barrier to a deal – but, in reality, Hamas has agreed to past ceasefire proposals, only to find Israel rejects deals it has previously agreed to, or changes the parameters of the negotiations.

The Trump administration previously pushed for a deal that would include the partial release of Israeli captives and a temporary pause in the fighting during which negotiations for a permanent end to the war would continue.

But Israel rejected that after initially supporting it, and the current deal being proposed calls for Hamas to release all captives, but only gets a temporary pause in the fighting in return.

Coupled with Israel’s ongoing military operation in Gaza City, where it has demanded all Palestinians leave, and its insistence that Hamas be destroyed, it looks likely that Israel plans to continue its war, whatever the outcome of the negotiations.

“I think the bottom line here is that Israel clearly is not interested in any kind of ceasefire, or negotiations for a ceasefire, [and] that the reports about Trump’s proposal of negotiating with Hamas, whatever this revised new offer was, was all a ruse and theatre,” said Zonszein.

“And of course, there’s no expectation that taking out [Hamas’s] political leadership in Doha is going to be some kind of strategic game changer in Israel’s war on Gaza,” she added.

Other analysts agreed with that perspective.

“Israel has taken its contempt for negotiations, and for international law and respect for [the] sovereignty of states to a new level of transparency,” said Daniel Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project and a former Israeli negotiator in the 1990s and early 2000s. “We should have long since been past the point where there was any doubt from any fair-minded person as to whether Israel is negotiating in good faith.”

Qatar reaction

Qatar has long had a role as a regional and international mediator, keeping good relations with both the United States and Iran, for example.

While it does not have relations with Israel, Qatar has hosted Israeli negotiators for ceasefire talks since the start of the war in October 2023, and has previously coordinated with Israel over providing aid to Gaza before the war.

“Qatar is one of the countries that is trying the hardest to calm the situation in Gaza and bring both parties out of the current war … but Israel has not recognised these efforts,” said Abdullah al-Imadi, a writer and journalist based in Doha.

But Qatar has begun to be dragged into the regional violence, with an attack from Iran on the US base at Al Udeid in June – which Iran emphasised was not directed at Qatar – and now the Israeli attack in Doha.

Al-Imadi believes that Qatar will attempt to “draw more international attention to the Israeli regime’s violations of all international laws and conventions” at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in a few days.

Qatar will seek “to mobilise international public opinion to pressure Israel to submit and respect the sovereignty of states”, said al-Imadi.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Middle East fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, said that he expected officials from Qatar and the wider Gulf Cooperation Council would be “reaching out to their US counterparts to assess reports that the administration greenlit this attack”.

“If accurate, [that] strikes at the very heart of the US-Gulf states security and defence partnership in ways that Iran’s strike on Qatar in June did not,” said Ulrichsen.

Analysts added that regional states needed to come together to push back against Israel.

“Hosting US bases and US military forces was an effective form of deterrence, [but that has] now evaporated,” Bianco said. “The GCC response may be a realisation that the US security guarantees are no longer as valuable as they have been thought to be for so long.”

“No one is actually safe, and nothing is really off the table,” Bianco said. “So of course, it has implications also for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and so on and so forth.”

“Every state in the region should have an interest in ending this impunity because the Israeli Air Force and its bombs are coming to your neighbourhood if you don’t come together to put a stop to this,” said Levy.

“The question should be asked and the choice placed in front of the US: Do you want relations with the rest of the region? Or do you want to indulge Israeli criminality?”

António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has called Israel’s ‘targeted strike’ on Hamas officials in Doha a ‘flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.’

There were explosions near a residential area in Doha on Tuesday after the Israeli military said it carried out ‘targeted strikes’ on Hamas officials. Qatar has condemned the attack in the strongest terms.

Explosions have been seen in the sky over Qatar’s capital, Doha. Iran’s state media said it launched a missile attack on US forces at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base. Qatar earlier had closed its airspace amid Iranian threats to retaliate for the US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

After a signing trade and defence deals with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, US President Donald Trump told media in Doha that the two had also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war and Iran’s nuclear programme.