Qatar hosted a summit of leaders of Arab and Islamic nations Monday in the hopes of presenting a united response to Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Doha last week.

Qatar’s ruling emir opened the summit by accusing Israel of not caring about its hostages held in Gaza and instead only working to "ensure Gaza is no longer livable."

Israel has said the goals of its war include bringing all the hostages back and defeating Hamas.

"If Israel wishes to assassinate the Hamas leaders, why then engage in negotiations?" Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani asked. “If you wish to insist on the liberation of hostages, why then do they assassinate all negotiators?”

The speech was unusually fiery for the 45-year-old ruler of Qatar, which has served as key mediator in an effort to reach a ceasefire in the war.

“There is no room to deal with such a party that’s cowardly and treacherous,” he added. “Those who work consistently to assassinate the party in these negotiations will certainly do everything to ensure the failure of these negotiations. When they claim that they seek the liberation of hostages, that’s a mere lie.”

Sheikh Tamim also denounced Israel over what he called the “genocide” it is committing in Gaza.

Israel vehemently denies it is committing genocide. It says Hamas is prolonging the war by not surrendering and releasing the hostages.

A variety of regional leaders attended the summit, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Israel launched its invasion of Gaza in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and since then it has also retaliated against the militant group and other members of Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance elsewhere, including in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and now Qatar.

That’s led to wider anger among Mideast nations already enraged by the over 64,000 Palestinians killed during the war in Gaza — and a growing concern that the U.S. commitment to protect Gulf Arab states may not be strong enough.

However, it remains unclear just what the summit will be able to achieve.

Significant tensions among the nations meeting could blunt cooperation — and they also have few levers they can pull. Condemnations from countries that Israel considers enemies, like Iran, will mean little.

Meanwhile, the nations attending that have diplomatic recognition deals with Israel may be reluctant to sever ties.