Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar stuns region, hurts chances of Gaza ceasefire : NPR

The Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman, Al Thani, tackles a press conference on Tuesday after Israeli strikes in Doha.

Karim Jaafar / AFP via Getty Images

hide

tilting legend

Karim Jaafar / AFP via Getty Images

Doha, Qatar-Qatar criticized the attack on Israel targeting Hamas leaders on its soil as an “state terrorism” after a high-end suburb in its capital, Doha, was shaken by explosions that killed six people and annihilated a cease-fire in Gaza, where the Arab state of the golf is a mediator.

The attack amazed at the Gulf Nation, which is an American ally that welcomes Hamas in exile leaders as well as thousands of American troops on the largest air base for the American forces in the Middle East. Qatar is also the place where President Trump visited in May and praised the country’s management for his role as mediator in conflicts in the world.

This role, however, led him to the orbit of the many Wars of Israel in the region, including in June, when the American military base of Qatar underwent an Iranian missile attack during a 12-day war between Israel and Iran which also saw the United States being directly involved. Iranian missiles were intercepted with a prior warning. Israel also attacked Syria, Lebanon and Yemen this week.

The attack on Tuesday by Israel on Hamas in Doha came without prior warning, explains the Prime Minister of Qatar. He struck part of Doha where schools, crèches, embassies and houses are located.

“This can only describe as state terrorism,” said journalists Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani after the attack. “This is a clear message to the region as a whole and this message is that there is a thug player in the region.”

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he wanted to change the Middle East. “Is it a message that he also wants to change the region of the Gulf?”

Hamas said that the Israeli attack in Doha had killed the son of the Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Heyya, and five other lower level men of the organization. Qatar said that a Qatari security officer was also killed. It was not confirmed independently if one of the targets provided by Israel had been killed.

This framework taken in an AFPTV sequence shows the smoke that failed after explosions in the Capital of Qatar on Tuesday. The Israeli army said it had made air strikes targeting senior Hamas leaders in the Qatari Doha capital, the place of several talks of talks aimed at ending the Gaza War.

Jacqueline Penney / AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images

hide

tilting legend

Jacqueline Penney / AFPTV / AFP via Getty Images

“This once again reveals the criminal nature of the occupation and his desire to undermine every chance of reaching an agreement,” said Hamas in a statement.

Some Israeli officials seemed to recognize that strikes may not have killed their planned goals, with the Israeli ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter by saying to Fox News: “If we have not obtained them this time, we will have them next time.”

Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said on social networks that Hamas leaders should disarm and release hostages, otherwise they would all be killed and that Gaza will be destroyed. “The long arm of Israel will act against his enemies anywhere,” he wrote. “There is no place where they can hide.”

This photo satellite photo obtained Wednesday from Planet Labs PBC and dated September 9, 2025, shows the members of the housing of the damaged buildings of the Hamas political bureau in the capital of Qatar Doha after being targeted by an Israeli strike.

Planet Labs / AFP via Getty Images

hide

tilting legend

Planet Labs / AFP via Getty Images

According to Israeli media, Israeli security officials said that the country’s air force had lost more than 10 ammunition in the attack on Qatar.

Netanyahu defended the attack on Tuesday at an event at the United States Embassy in Jerusalem.

“The days are over when terrorist leaders appreciate immunity anywhere. I will not allow such immunity to the murderers of our people,” he said, referring to the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, on Israel, who killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials.

Netanyahu supervised the execution of Operation Doha alongside the senior leaders of the Israeli military and domestic intelligence agency, Shin Bet, after months of planning, according to Israeli media.

Air strikes seemed to be surprised by Qatarian political and military leaders, with Israeli planes using technology to escape radar systems, said Al Thani.

He said the United States informed Qatar 10 minutes after the attack on this. Trump said he was “very unhappy” from Israel’s unilateral decision to bomb Qatar, although he wrote in an online article that Hamas elimination is a worthy objective. Trump called the Qatari emir to both condemn the action and to offer insurance that the United States had not coordinated with Israel before the attack, or had been preliminary, said the Prime Minister of Qatar.

Al Thani said that the attack was addressed to the Hamas negotiation team when it was studying a new American proposal that could end the war in Gaza, but said ISRAEL had worked to sabotage each attempt to achieve peace.

The War of Israel in Gaza since has killed more than 64,000 people, a third, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in the Gulf come when its soldiers lead an offensive to occupy the whole city of Gaza and forcibly move its nearly a million residents.

Efforts to end the remaining two -year war and remaining Israeli hostages were endangered after the attack on Israel against Qatar, who had welcomed Israeli negotiators in Hotels in Doha and would mix between the soils carrying messages between them and the heads of Hamas in exile.

“Qatar has spared no effort to put an end to this war and will do everything it can to arrest this war, to arrest this hostility in Gaza,” the Prime Minister of Qatar said.

But he refused to engage in a continuous role for Qatar in these Gaza talks after the attack.

“Regarding the current talks, I don’t think there is something valid at the moment, while-after seeing such an attack,” he said.

Only a small fraction of nearly 150 hostages released from Gaza in the past two years has been directly released by Israeli military operations, the rest released by Qatari and Egyptian mediation. The families of the 48 captives remaining inside Palestinian territory, 20 of which are supposed to be alive, said after the attack on Qatar that “the chances of bringing them are now more uncertain than ever”.

The role of the Qatari government in negotiations in all that is between Israel and Hamas has been crucial, alongside Egypt, and if the authorities of Doha were not informed before the strike, it would be “extraordinary, not in good sense”, according to Michael Koplow, the regional policy of regional policy.

“No clear how all negotiations can continue given the status of Doha as a place,” wrote Koplow in an email, adding that “maybe that was the goal”.

Aya Batrawy reported in Doha, Qatar. Daniel Estrin contributed Tel Aviv’s reports, Israel.