A Washington Post investigation published Saturday exposed a covert military and intelligence alliance between Israel and six Arab nations—Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—even as those same governments publicly condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.
According to leaked intelligence documents cited by the report, cooperation between Israel and the Arab states expanded significantly from 2022 onward under a U.S.-led initiative known as the Regional Security Construct (RSC). The framework was reportedly designed to counter Iran and its regional partners, commonly referred to as the “Axis of Resistance,” and to strengthen coordination between U.S. allies in the Middle East.
The report detailed a series of secret military exercises and intelligence exchanges. Among them were tunnel-detection drills held at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in January 2025—closely mirroring tactics used by Hamas in Gaza—and multinational airborne operations in Giza, Egypt, on September 6, 2025. These joint exercises included U.S., Israeli, and Arab forces, with the objective of improving coordination in the event of regional conflict.
Despite fiery public condemnations of Israel’s Gaza campaign—such as Qatar’s emir calling the conflict a “war of extermination” and Saudi Arabia accusing Israel of “starvation and ethnic cleansing”—the Post found that defense and intelligence cooperation quietly continued. Arab radar and sensor data were reportedly integrated into U.S. and Israeli systems, expanding regional early-warning capabilities and improving shared situational awareness.
The article also described Israeli officers and personnel being discreetly flown into Arab countries for closed-door meetings and training exercises. These activities were conducted under strict secrecy to avoid political backlash within Arab societies, where public opinion remains overwhelmingly supportive of the Palestinians.
The covert alliance is believed to have collapsed after Israeli airstrikes on Doha, Qatar, on September 9, 2025, which targeted Hamas’s political leadership. The strikes provoked outrage across the Arab world and forced participating nations to suspend their coordination with Israel.
However, recent U.S. diplomatic overtures—such as authorizing the Qatari Air Force to operate from American bases—suggest that Washington may be attempting to quietly rebuild elements of the partnership behind the scenes.