Qatar has been pressuring Gazan terrorist factions to hold off any actions that could escalate security tensions with Israel until after the FIFA World Cup, hosted in the Gulf state until December 18, Israeli media said on Friday.
The report comes amid an uptick in terrorist attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, a development that often sparks downpour of rockets on southern Israel. This time, however, the escalation is yet to occur.
The Qatari envoy to Gaza Mohammad al-Emadi visited the enclave before the tournament kicked off to convey the message to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the two factions in Gaza.
Qatar is a major sponsor of Hamas, a terrorist group committed to Israel's destruction.
While the World Cup host doesn't have diplomatic ties with Israel, it opened its doors to Israelis for the event.
Unlike its Gulf neighbors the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which recently signed historic agreements with Israel, Qatar has conditioned normalizing relations on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Doha also maintains close relations with Tehran, which firmly objects to Gulf ties with Jerusalem.
Qatar was the first Gulf state to establish diplomatic relations with Israel back in 1996, with Israel even opening a trade office there. But the office was closed by local authorities in 2000 and relations between the two nations formally ended in 2009 over an Israeli military operation in Gaza.