By Guy Birchall
Contributing Writer
Israel has conducted a strike against senior Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, according to posts by the Israel Defense Forces and the Qatari Foreign Ministry.
“The IDF and ISA [Israel Security Agency] conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF said in a statement on X, without confirming the location of the attack.
“For years, these members of the Hamas leadership have led the terrorist organization’s operations, [they] are directly responsible for the brutal Oct. 7 massacre, and have been orchestrating and managing the war against the State of Israel.”
The IDF said that measures were taken before the strike to “mitigate harm to civilians.”
Minutes later, Qatari spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Majed Al-Ansari issued a statement on X condemning an Israeli attack on Doha and announcing that an investigation into the strike was underway.
“The State of Qatar condemns in the strongest terms the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential headquarters housing several members of the political bureau of the movement in the Qatari capital, Doha,” he wrote.
“This criminal assault constitutes a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms, and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office also issued a statement on the strike via his personal X account, saying the action “was a wholly independent Israeli operation.”
“Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility,” it read.
Hamas said the strike demonstrates that Netanyahu is not interested in reaching an agreement to end the conflict.
“Targeting the negotiating delegation, while it was discussing U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest proposal, confirms beyond a shadow of a doubt that Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement,” the Hamas statement reads.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed, during a Tuesday press briefing, that the U.S. military had notified Trump prior to the Israeli strike. Leavitt said the president then passed word of the incoming strike to the Qatari government through special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff.
“President Trump immediately directed special envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did,” Leavitt said. “The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States, and feels very badly about the location of this attack.”
Qatar, alongside Egypt, has been mediating between Hamas and Israel as part of efforts to bring the ongoing war in Gaza to an end.
“Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and greatly taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals. However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal,” Leavitt said Tuesday.
The U.S. Embassy in Doha has issued a shelter-in-place order for all its facilities and urged American citizens in the country to do the same, as well as to monitor its X account for updates.
The order was lifted just under two hours later.
Fellow Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, also condemned the strike.
“The security of the Arab Gulf states is indivisible, and we stand heart and soul with the sisterly State of Qatar, condemning the treacherous Israeli attack that targeted it, and affirming our full solidarity with it in confronting this aggression,” Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, senior diplomatic adviser to the president of the UAE, said on X.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also condemned the attack in a phone call to Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, calling it a “criminal act and a flagrant violation of international laws and norms,” according to the state-backed Saudi Press Agency.
The strike on the Qatari capital comes a day after six people were killed and at least another dozen were wounded in a shooting attack in Jerusalem.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that two Palestinian attackers were killed at the scene of Monday’s attack; police later arrested a third person in connection with the shooting.
Hamas hailed the assault without claiming responsibility.
Israel Ganz, the head of the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, which oversees Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank, cheered the Doha strike.
“The message is, even with Qatar, even with friends, you will not hide our enemies in your backyard,” Ganz said in a televised report on Tuesday.
The Doha strike comes just two days after Trump issued a “last warning” to Hamas to accept a deal to secure the release of all hostages still held by the terrorist group.
“[Israel has] accepted my terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump wrote in a Sunday post on his Truth Social platform. “I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”
The specific terms being negotiated by Trump have not been publicly released.
The war in Gaza has raged since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing 251 hostages.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 64,000 people have been killed since the start of the war. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in these casualty figures. Their accuracy has not been independently verified.
