Both statements belong in the record. So does the condemnation Qatar backed between them.
What the prime minister said
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Morgan that October 7 should be condemned. The Jerusalem Post’s account of the interview records his call for accountability, alongside his argument that the attack did not justify Israel’s subsequent military response in Gaza.
The answer cited in that report did not explicitly name Hamas. That does not erase the condemnation; it defines precisely what he said. Nor was this Qatar’s first recorded support for a condemnation of the attacks.
The statement dated October 7
The Foreign Ministry’s statement remains available on its official website, dated October 7, 2023. It calls on all parties to exercise restraint, then assigns Israel sole responsibility for the ongoing escalation, citing its treatment of Palestinians and events at Al Aqsa Mosque.
Hamas is not named. Neither are the Israeli civilians murdered that day or the people taken hostage.
The wording matters in both directions. Doha blamed Israel for the broader escalation. The document does not literally say that Israel carried out Hamas’s killings, and reporting on it should not replace its actual wording with that claim.
July 2025 belongs in the chronology
The New York Declaration, issued in July 2025, explicitly condemned Hamas’s October 7 attacks against civilians. Qatar was among the participating working group co chairs, and contemporary reporting identified it among the declaration’s supporters.
The same document also condemned Israeli actions against civilians in Gaza. Its criticism of Israel did not prevent it from naming Hamas. That makes the declaration relevant to any comparison with the ministry’s earlier statement.
What the comparison establishes
The September 2026 interview cannot accurately be presented as Doha’s first condemnation. Equally, the later declaration cannot be read back into a statement issued on the day of the attack.
The distinction is between what Qatar said at different moments. Its prime minister now describes a massacre and calls for accountability. The ministry’s October 7 statement records what the government chose to emphasize then, and what it left unmentioned.
