Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday expressed regret over the collateral damage caused by Israel’s Sept. 9 airstrike on Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar.
During an interview with Qatari news outlet Al Jazeera, Olmert said he was “sorry” for the death of Hamam al-Hayya, the son of Hamas’s main negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, who is described by Al Jazeera as “now one of five leaders steering Hamas’s leadership council.”
“A child should not be a victim ... neither should his wife, who was hurt. We are fighting terrorism and they will be punished when the time comes, but the family is another matter,” he told Al Jazeera. The Qatar-based outlet has been banned in Israel and many Arab countries for disseminating Islamist propaganda.
Olmert also criticized the timing and location of the attack, which reportedly killed five junior Hamas members, including al-Hayya’s son, but failed to hit the main targets.
“Killing the negotiating team means you don’t want negotiations and you don’t want the release of the hostages. All Hamas members should be punished, but the strike in Doha was not in the right place or at the right time,” said Olmert.
Khalil al-Hayya reportedly survived, though he did not attend his son’s funeral, fueling speculation about his condition, Israel’s Channel 12 News reported. Hamas claimed Israel’s attempt to assassinate him had failed.
Asked by Channel 12 whether his comments had been taken out of context, Olmert said, “I don’t think it’s right to eliminate family members of terrorists” but that Hamas leaders are legitimate military targets.
“All members of the Hamas negotiating team are terrorists and therefore mortal. I would have eliminated them—but not during negotiations, and not in Qatar, which assists in these talks,” he told Channel 12.
Olmert has made a series of controversial statements in recent years.
In a June 3 interview with PBS News he accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a “private war” for “political considerations.” He called the government’s supporters “messianic groups of thugs.”
In a Haaretz op-ed in May, he accused Israel of committing war crimes and referred to the Netanyahu government as a “criminal gang.”
In 2023, during the judicial reform protests, Olmert appeared to call for violence.
“What is needed is to move to the next stage, the stage of war, and war is not waged with speeches. War is waged in a face-to-face battle, head-to-head and hand-to-hand, and that is what will happen here,” he said in an interview with DemocraTV, according to Israel National News.
At the time, the Likud Party filed a police complaint over Olmert’s “dangerous incitement.”
In Nov. 2022, Olmert lost a defamation lawsuit to Netanyahu after claiming that the prime minister, his wife and youngest son, Yair, were mentally ill. The Netanyahus were awarded roughly $18,000.
