Qatar has become a key intermediary in the Israel-Hamas war, balancing its relationship with those viewed as militant groups by the West while trying to preserve its close security ties with the United States. Qatar has hosted Hamas' political office in its capital of Doha for over a decade and has paid the salaries of civil servants in the Gaza Strip, provided direct cash transfers to poor families and offered other kinds of humanitarian aid. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Doha during his recent shuttle diplomacy trip in the region and Qatar's ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has channeled the wider anger in the Arab world over Israel's unrelenting airstrikes and siege of the Gaza Strip.