Israel strikes Hamas Leaders in Qatar
Israel launched an airstrike Tuesday against Hamas officials in Doha, the capital of Qatar.
Qatar has condemned the strike and suspended its mediation between Hamas and Israel as a result of the strikes.
The strike is believed to have targeted Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas leader whom Israel tried to assassinate in Jordan in 1997. A Hamas source told Al Jazeera that the strike was carried out against Hamas’s negotiating team, which has been engaged in talks with Israel concerning a potential ceasefire in Gaza.
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Israel took full responsibility for the attack in a post on the Twitter account of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. The Jerusalem Post, an Israeli outlet, reported that the United States greenlit the operation, citing an Israeli official. Axios has reported that the Trump administration was notified “right before” the attack.
Qatar is a close U.S. ally, hosting numerous U.S. forces, including at Al Udeid airbase, the largest American military facility in the Middle East. The U.S. embassy in Qatar has issued a shelter-in-place order for their facilities due to Israel’s strike.
Qatar has long served as a mediator between Israel and Hamas, and Hamas’s presence in Qatar has allowed negotiations to occur. Qatar has recently been criticized by Israel and Israel-aligned parts of America’s foreign policy establishment for hosting Hamas’s political offices and providing financial aid to Hamas in Gaza. From 2018 to 2023, Israel, including Netanyahu, backed Qatari aid to Hamas as a way to weaken the Palestinian Authority and prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.
