FORMER UK LABOUR spin doctor Alastair Campbell has said Israel’s attack on Hamas in Qatar is akin to Britain “wiping out” Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness on the eve of the 1998 agreement.

Campbell was a strategic advisor to then-British prime minister Tony Blair during the Good Friday Agreement negotiations and part of the negotiation team.

Speaking on his podcast The Rest is Politics, which he co-hosts with former Conservative MP Rory Stewart, Campbell compared Israel’s attack on Hamas negotiators to the negotiations around the Good Friday Agreement.

Alastair Campbell (left) and Rory Stewart attending 2018 conference at Queen's University Belfast to mark 25th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

“It’s like… just as you think you’re getting somewhere, two days before Good Friday feels like it’s coming together, the British government decides to go and wipe out [Gerry] Adams and [Martin] McGuinness.”

Stewart picked up the conversation and added of the hypothetical incident: “Fire an open missile straight to Gerry Adams and say, ‘we take full responsibility for this, the guy’s a terrorist’.

Continuing the analogy and imagining what the UK’s justification would be, Stewart adds: “‘By the way, we’re not going to get into any legal conversations about what our evidence is, courts or judges, he is a terrorist, and we’ve killed a lot of other people at the same time.’”

Campbell further remarked: “That’s the world that we’re in and that’s the world that Trump tolerates.”

Campbell was a friend of McGuinness, who died in 2017.

Bill Clinton speaks with Alastair Campbell after funeral of Martin McGuinness at St Columba's Church Long Tower in Derry on 23 March, 2017 Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Following McGuinness’s death, Campbell wrote in The Guardian that McGuinness was “very human, very likeable, and dedicated to making the new path he had chosen work for the people he represented”.

Campbell also revealed that he had sought out McGuinness for advice on a plotline for a novel he was writing which related to an IRA bombing campaign in Britain. 

“I picked his brains about that,” said Campbell, who attended McGuinness’s funeral.

Trump rebukes Netanyahu

While Campbell said Trump “tolerates” such attacks, the US president did issue a rare rebuke of Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over strikes against Hamas in Qatar.

Six people were killed in the attack on a compound in Doha, including top Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya’s son and a Qatari security officer, in an unprecedented airstrike that threatened to derail flagging mediation efforts.

Smoke rises from explosion caused by Israeli strike, in Doha, Qatar AP AP

Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said his country reserved “the right to respond to this blatant attack”, calling the strike a “pivotal moment” for the region.

However, he added: “Nothing will deter us from continuing this (mediation) role for all the different issues around us in the region.”

Qatar, a key US ally that hosts the largest American base in the region, has hosted Hamas’ political bureau since 2012 with the blessing of the United States.

“I’m not thrilled about the whole situation,” Trump told reporters in Washington. “We want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today.”

In a post on social media, Trump added: “This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me.”

“I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack,” he said — although adding that eliminating Hamas was still a “worthy goal.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sought to justify the decision, telling an Israeli radio station: “We don’t always act in the interests of the United States.”

“We are coordinated, they give us incredible support, we appreciate that, but sometimes we make decisions and inform the United States,” he said.

“It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas,” Danon told 103FM.

Negotiations

US ally Qatar has been the venue of repeated rounds of Gaza peace talks.

Along with the United States and Egypt, Qatar has led multiple attempts to end the Israel-Hamas war, which was sparked by the Palestinian militant group’s October 2023 attack, and secure the release of the remaining hostages.

The main Israeli group campaigning on behalf of the hostages expressed “deep concern” following the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders.

“The families of the hostages are following the developments in Doha with deep concern and heavy anxiety. A grave fear now hangs over the price that the hostages may pay,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

Ambulance seen near site of Israeli airstrike in Doha, Qatar Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The strikes have drawn condemnation, including from UN chief Antonio Guterres, who condemned Israel’s “flagrant violation” of Qatari sovereignty.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the Israeli attack “not only violates Qatar’s territorial sovereignty, but also jeopardises all of our efforts to secure the release of the hostages”.

The attack came as Israel stepped up a deadly assault on Gaza City and  marked a sharp escalation on the territory of a state that has been a driving force in ceasefire efforts.

And while the Qatari PM said “nothing will deter” him from continuing talks, analysts warned the strikes had likely derailed any potential for a Gaza truce.

“Israel knows exactly what it just did. It just killed the negotiations and any chance of getting its hostages back,” said Muhammad Shehada, a political analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

-With additional reporting from AFP 2025