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Doha to Host Emergency Arab-Islamic Summit after Israeli Strike

Palestine summit hosted in Cairo last March (Egyptian Presidency)
Palestine summit hosted in Cairo last March (Egyptian Presidency)
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Doha to Host Emergency Arab-Islamic Summit after Israeli Strike

Palestine summit hosted in Cairo last March (Egyptian Presidency)
Palestine summit hosted in Cairo last March (Egyptian Presidency)

Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit aimed at forging a unified response to Israel’s strike on Doha that killed senior Hamas leaders, Arab diplomats told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Qatar’s state news agency said on Thursday the summit will convene on Sunday and Monday to discuss Israel’s air raid, which struck Hamas’ top command in the Qatari capital on Tuesday while the group discussed a US ceasefire plan for Gaza. The attack drew condemnation from Gulf, Arab and international organizations.

Arab League spokesman Gamal Roshdy said the timing of the summit reflected “an Arab and Islamic recognition of the gravity of Israel’s assault on Qatar” and the need for a common stand to uphold international law and reject what he called Israel’s “rogue behavior.”

“The summit will review the fallout and steps needed to stop the region sliding into further conflict and violence,” Roshdy told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said in a CNN interview on Wednesday that Doha was consulting regional partners on a response.

He affirmed that there will be a regional reaction and said it is under consultation with other partners in the region.

Arab diplomats said the summit would also set a “roadmap for joint Arab action” based on a Saudi-Egyptian initiative adopted at the Arab foreign ministers’ meeting in Cairo earlier this month.

That framework called for ending Israel’s occupation of Arab territories and rejected any durable regional cooperation under continued occupation or threats of annexation.

The gathering comes ahead of this month’s United Nations General Assembly, with sources expressing hope the summit would issue “firm decisions,” citing expectations of broad Arab and Islamic participation.

Cairo-based political scientist Ahmed Youssef Ahmed said the summit must go beyond condemnation to punitive measures. “It should also be a moment of frankness with Washington,” he said, noting that Israel struck a state President Donald Trump has described as a trusted ally, one that hosts the region’s most important US base.

Trump himself said he was “not happy” with Israel’s strike on Qatar. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said it ran counter to Trump’s stated goal of achieving peace in Gaza.

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Arab World

Video Shows Fires in Palestinian Village in West Bank During Israeli Settler Attack

People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)
People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)
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Video Shows Fires in Palestinian Village in West Bank During Israeli Settler Attack

People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)
People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinian village in the West Bank, setting fire to a series of structures, according to security camera footage obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, in an overnight onslaught that has become a common phenomenon in the occupied territory.

In the video, time-stamped at around 10 p.m. Saturday, several structures in the village go up in flames as the sound of gunfire, screaming and barking echoes in the background. At one point in the video, the fires grow so large that they illuminate the bands of settlers, dressed in black, pacing freely through the village.

Also Sunday, at least four more countries said they had been invited to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the international body expected to oversee his Gaza ceasefire plan and perhaps other conflict resolutions.

Meanwhile, an Israeli Cabinet minister said that he'd ordered officials to disconnect the water and electricity for facilities of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA. It's the latest action in Israel’s long-running campaign to shut down the agency. UNRWA fears the shutdown could hamper its work in east Jerusalem.

Settler attack video

The footage obtained by the AP showed the moment dozens of settlers descended on the small Bedouin hamlet of Khirbet al-Sidra, north of Jerusalem, attacking Palestinians and international activists and burning cars and homes, according to the Palestinian Authority's Jerusalem governate, which monitors Palestinian affairs in the area.

In a statement, it said that eight homes and at least two cars were burned in the attack.

Israel’s military said that soldiers dispatched to the village found an Israeli vehicle with clubs inside. It said that Palestinians, Israelis and foreign nationals were injured, and troops were searching the area to make arrests. As of Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been reported.

It marked the latest assault in the tense territory as settler violence spikes in recent months.

Around 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace.

The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state. Israel has sought to play down the violence as the work of a small, radical minority. But Israel's far-right government, dominated by settlers and their supporters, has done little to stop the attacks.

Board of Peace invites

Jordan, Greece, Cyprus and Pakistan on Sunday announced that they had received invitations to Trump's Board of Peace. Albania, Egypt, Paraguay, Argentina and Türkiye have already said they were invited.

The board, made up of world leaders, was initially seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. It's now taking shape with ambitions to have a far broader mandate to address other global crises, potentially rivaling the United Nations.

The US hasn't yet announced the official list of members. In letters sent Friday to various world leaders inviting them to be “founding members” of the board, Trump says the body would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict.”

Israel moves against UNRWA

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on X Sunday he'd issued formal notices to disconnect water and electricity from facilities belonging to UNRWA.

The UN agency said on X that the shutdown could take effect within two weeks. It comes after Israel's parliament in December passed a bill to cut the supply of electricity and water to the facilities.

The earlier ban already closed many of UNRWA’s services in east Jerusalem, though it continues to operate a vocational training center in east Jerusalem.

The agency provides aid and services, including health and education, to around 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Earlier last year, Israel banned the agency from operating on its territory. The ban followed months of attacks on the agency by Israel, which says it's deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that accusation.

Arab World

Iraq Announces Complete Withdrawal of US-Led Coalition from Federal Territory

US forces at the Taji camp, north of Baghdad. (AFP file)
US forces at the Taji camp, north of Baghdad. (AFP file)
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Iraq Announces Complete Withdrawal of US-Led Coalition from Federal Territory

US forces at the Taji camp, north of Baghdad. (AFP file)
US forces at the Taji camp, north of Baghdad. (AFP file)

Iraq said on Sunday US-led coalition forces had finished withdrawing from bases within the country's federal territory, which excludes the autonomous northern Kurdistan region.

"We announce today... the completion of the evacuation of all military bases and leadership headquarters in the official federal areas of Iraq of advisers" of the US-led coalition, the military committee tasked with overseeing the end of the coalition's mission said.

With the withdrawal, "these sites come under the full control of Iraqi security forces", it said in the statement, adding that they would transition to "the stage of bilateral security relations with the United States".

The vast majority of coalition forces had withdrawn from Iraqi bases under a 2024 deal between Baghdad and Washington outlining the end of the mission in Iraq by the end of 2025 and by September 2026 in the Kurdistan region.

US and allied troops had been deployed to Iraq and Syria since 2014 to fight the ISIS group, which had seized large swathes of both countries.

The group was territorially defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in 2019, but continues to operate sleeper cells.

The vast majority of coalition troops withdrew from Iraq over previous stages, with only advisers remaining in the country.

The military committee on Sunday said Iraqi forces were now "fully capable of preventing the reappearance of ISIS in Iraq and its infiltration across borders".

"Coordination with the international coalition will continue with regards to completely eliminating ISIS's presence in Syria," it added.

It pointed to "the coalition's role in Iraq offering cross-border logistical support for operations in Syria, through their presence at an airbase in Erbil", the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan region.

In December, two US soldiers and a civilian interpreter were killed in Syria in an attack blamed on ISIS, sparking fears of a resurgence in the country.

The statement added that anti-ISIS operations would be coordinated with the coalition through the Ain al-Assad base in Anbar province in western Iraq.

ISIS attacks in Iraq have massively declined in recent years, but the group maintains a presence in the country's mountainous areas.

A UN Security Council report in August said: "In Iraq, the group has focused on rebuilding networks along the Syrian border and restoring capacity in the Badia region."

Arab World

Jordan Says King Abdullah Received Invitation to Join Gaza Peace Board

Palestinian girls walk past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, in Gaza City, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Palestinian girls walk past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, in Gaza City, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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Jordan Says King Abdullah Received Invitation to Join Gaza Peace Board

Palestinian girls walk past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, in Gaza City, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Palestinian girls walk past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, in Gaza City, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Jordan's foreign ministry said on Sunday that King Abdullah received an invitation from ‌US President ‌Donald ‌Trump ⁠to join ‌the so-called "Board of Peace" for Gaza.

The foreign ministry said it was ⁠currently reviewing ‌related documents ‍within ‍the country's ‍internal legal procedures.

The board is set to supervise the temporary governance of Gaza, ⁠which has been under a shaky ceasefire since October.

On Friday, the White House announced some members of a so-called "Board of Peace" that is to supervise the temporary governance of Gaza, which has been under a fragile ceasefire since October.

The names include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump is the chair of the board, according to a plan his White House unveiled in October.

The White House did not detail the responsibilities of each member of the "founding Executive board." The names do not include any Palestinians. The White House said ⁠more members will be announced over the coming weeks.

The board will also include private equity executive and billionaire ‌Marc Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga and Robert Gabriel, ‍a Trump adviser, the White House ‍said, adding that Nickolay Mladenov, a former UN Middle East envoy, will be the ‍high representative for Gaza.

Army Major General Jasper Jeffers, a US special operations commander, was appointed commander of the International Stabilization Force, the White House said. A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the board and countries working with it to establish that force in Gaza.

The White House also named an 11-member "Gaza Executive Board" that will include Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East ⁠peace process, Sigrid Kaag, the United Arab Emirates minister for international cooperation, Reem Al-Hashimy, and Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Yakir Gabay, along with some members of the executive board.

This additional board will support Mladenov's office and the Palestinian technocratic body, whose details were announced this week, the White House said.