Israel’s attacks on Hamas in Qatar stun the Gulf and dash chances for a Gaza ceasefire
DOHA, Qatar — Qatar has slammed Israel’s attack targeting Hamas leaders on its soil as an act of “state terrorism” after an upscale suburb in its capital, Doha, was rocked with explosions that killed six people and dashed hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza, where the Gulf Arab state is a mediator.
The attack stunned the tiny Gulf nation, which is a U.S. ally that hosts Hamas leaders in exile as well as thousands of U.S. troops on the largest air base for American forces in the Middle East. Qatar is also where President Trump visited in May and lavished praise on the country’s leadership for its role as a mediator in conflicts around the world.
That role, however, has drawn it into the orbit of Israel’s many wars in the region, including in June when the U.S. military base in Qatar came under Iranian missile attack during a 12-day war between Israel and Iran that also saw the U.S. get directly involved. Iran’s missiles were intercepted with advance warning. Israel has also attacked Syria, Lebanon and Yemen this week.
Tuesday’s attack by Israel on Hamas in Doha came with no advance warning, says Qatar’s prime minister. It struck a part of Doha where schools, nurseries, embassies and homes are located.
“This can only described as state terrorism,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told reporters after the attack. “This is a clear message to the region as a whole and that message is that there’s a rogue player in the region.”
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he wants to change the Middle East. “Is this a message that he wants to change the Gulf region, too?”
Hamas said the Israeli attack in Doha killed the son of Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Heyya, and five other lower-level men in the organization. Qatar said a Qatari security officer was also killed. It was not independently confirmed if any of Israel’s intended targets were killed.
“This once again reveals the criminal nature of the occupation and its desire to undermine any chances of reaching an agreement,” Hamas said in a statement.
Some Israeli officials appeared to acknowledge the strikes may not have killed their intended targets, with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter telling Fox News, “If we didn’t get them this time, we’ll get them next time.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on social media that Hamas leaders should disarm and release hostages, or else they’d all be killed and Gaza will be destroyed. “Israel’s long arm will act against its enemies anywhere,” he wrote. “There is no place where they can hide.”
Israeli security officials said the country’s air force dropped more than 10 munitions in the attack on Qatar, according to Israeli media.
Netanyahu defended the attack at a U.S. Embassy event in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“The days are over when terrorist leaders enjoy immunity anywhere. I will not allow such immunity for the murderers of our people,” he said, referencing the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, on Israel, that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.
Netanyahu oversaw the Doha operation’s execution alongside senior leaders from the Israeli military and domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, after months of planning, according to Israeli media.
The airstrikes seemed to catch Qatari political and military leadership by surprise, with Israeli aircraft using technology to evade radar systems, Al Thani said.
He said the U.S. notified Qatar 10 minutes after the attack about it coming. Trump said he was “very unhappy” about Israel’s unilateral decision to bomb Qatar, though he wrote in a post online that eliminating Hamas is a worthy goal. Trump called the Qatari Emir to both condemn the action and offer reassurances that the U.S. had neither coordinated with Israel ahead of the attack, nor received any prior notice of it, Qatar’s prime minister said.
Al Thani said the attack was aimed at Hamas’ negotiating team as it was studying a new U.S. proposal that could end the war in Gaza, but he said Israel has worked to sabotage every attempt at achieving peace.
Israel’s war in Gaza since has killed more than 64,000 people, a third of them children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel’s attack on Hamas’ leaders in the Gulf comes as its military is carrying out an offensive to occupy all of Gaza City and forcibly displace its nearly 1 million residents.
Efforts to end the nearly two-year-long war and free remaining Israeli hostages were thrown into jeopardy after Israel’s attack on Qatar, which had hosted Israeli negotiators in hotels in Doha and would shuffle between floors carrying messages between them and the Hamas leaders in exile.
“Qatar has spared no effort in order to end this war and will do whatever it can to stop this war, to stop this hostility on Gaza,” Qatar’s prime minster said.
But he refused to commit to a continued role for Qatar in those Gaza talks after the attack.
“When it comes to the current talks, I don’t think there is something valid right now, while — after we’re seeing such an attack,” he said.
Only a small fraction of the nearly 150 hostages released from Gaza in the past two years have been directly freed by Israeli military operations, with the rest freed through Qatari and Egyptian mediation. The families of the 48 captives that remain inside the Palestinian territory, 20 of whom are believed to be alive, said after the attack on Qatar that “the chances of bringing them back are now more uncertain than ever.”
The role of the Qatari government in the on-again-off-again negotiations between Israel and Hamas has been crucial, alongside Egypt, and if the authorities in Doha were not notified in advance of the strike it would be “extraordinary, and not in a good way,” according to Michael Koplow, the chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum, who often briefs members of Congress on regional policy matters.
“Unclear how any negotiations can ever continue given Doha’s status as the venue,” Koplow wrote in an email, adding that “maybe that was the aim.”
Aya Batrawy reported from Doha, Qatar. Daniel Estrin contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Transcript:
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The suburbs of Qatar’s capital, Doha, were rocked with explosions yesterday after Israel bombed Hamas’ office and its residences there.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
It marks the first attack of its kind by Israel on Qatar, a U.S. ally that’s been hosting Hamas leaders in exile and is a mediator in the war in Gaza. In a few minutes, we’ll hear directly from an official with the Qatari government on how they plan to respond. But first…
MARTIN: Here to tell us more about the attack and the fallout is NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy, who is in Doha this morning. Aya, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So could you just start with explaining what exactly happened in Qatar yesterday?
BATRAWY: Sure. So it was just before 4 p.m. here when explosions rang out in the capital in several locations. Videos showed pedestrians screaming and running for cover on the street. And Doha is a city where the last FIFA World Cup was played. It’s a major international travel hub, and this is where Trump came in May and lavished praise on the leadership here because it hosts thousands of U.S. troops. So this was a stunning attack. And Israel’s military claimed responsibility for it, saying it was targeting senior Hamas leaders who it says were, quote, “directly responsible” for the October 7 attack of 2023 on Israel.
Now, one of the bombings targeted Hamas’ office here in Doha. This is where I and other reporters have sat in interviews with the group’s political leaders. Some of them say the decision to attack Israel actually came from its military wing inside Gaza on October 7, not from them, that they did not have prior knowledge of it. Either way, Israel missed its target. It did not kill any senior Hamas officials. Instead, it killed six people, according to Hamas, among them, a Hamas official’s son, the head of his office, three others with no titles with Hamas and a Qatari security officer.
MARTIN: And what is Qatar saying about this attack?
BATRAWY: Well, Qatar’s prime minister describes this as state terrorism, and Qataris say they had no forewarning of the attack. So speaking from a podium last night, Qatar’s prime minister said the attack on Qatar’s soil is a message to the region that Israel is a rogue player, and that this attack is proof that Israel has worked to sabotage every attempt to achieve peace.
And here, I’ll note that Qatar says its role as mediator and as host of Hamas’ political leaders in exile has long been at the behest of successive U.S. administrations. And also, keep in mind that for nearly two years now, Qatar and Egypt have served as mediators between Israel and Hamas, hosting both sides in talks, some of them here at hotels in Doha, where mediators shuffle between floors to deliver messages between the two sides. And they’ve successfully mediated during Israel’s war in Gaza the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees, though a deal to end the war remains out of reach.
Now, it is hard to see how Qatar might actually come and host Israel’s top security brass here again after these attacks or if Hamas would remain in Doha, especially given that Israel did not achieve its mission here.
MARTIN: So as we understand this, Israel just tried to kill the Hamas officials who are responsible for negotiating ceasefire proposals, if I have that right. So how might this attack affect those efforts to end the war in Gaza?
BATRAWY: That is correct, yeah. And this was a unilateral Israeli decision, according to President Trump. He spoke with Qatar’s emir after the attack yesterday and said the U.S. was not on board with it. Now, what we’re hearing from Israeli officials, like the defense minister and others, is they are calling this now a, quote, “message.” They say Israel will continue to pursue Hamas and that if the group does not surrender, they and Gaza will be annihilated. So what this means for the war is that for people in Gaza, their suffering, displacement, the killing of civilians every day continues with no end in sight. And the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza say the chance of bringing them back now faces greater uncertainty than ever before.
MARTIN: That is NPR international correspondent Aya Batrawy. Aya, thank you.
BATRAWY: Thank you, Michel.
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