Since Hamas killed and abducted hundreds of Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has assassinated leaders of the Palestinian militant group in Lebanon, Iran and Gaza.
But Qatar, where some of Hamas’s top leaders have been living, was long seen as off-limits.
The wealthy Gulf nation hosts the largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East and has maintained informal relations with Israel. It has also been mediating between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war.
So it was startling when Israel set all those considerations aside and sent warplanes on Tuesday to try to assassinate Hamas’s leadership in the Qatari capital, Doha, targeting a burnt orange building in broad daylight in a residential neighborhood with schools and embassies.
Hamas said no senior leaders were killed in the attack. The son of Khalil al-Hayya, a leading figure who helped plan the 2023 attack, was killed, along with four other people associated with the group and a member of Qatar’s internal security forces.
A number of civilians were also wounded, according to Qatar’s interior ministry. Israeli officials have not publicly commented on their own assessments as to whether any of its Hamas targets were killed or injured.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the strike as a part of Israel’s oft-stated mission to avenge the Hamas-led October 2023 attack, and make sure it can never be repeated.
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The post What Drove Israel’s Attack on Hamas in Qatar? appeared first on New York Times.
