Israel targets Hamas leaders in Qatar airstrike

What happened

Israel on Tuesday attacked Hamas’ political headquarters in Doha, Qatar, as the militant group’s top leadership was meeting to discuss a Gaza peace proposal from President Donald Trump. Hamas said five lower-level members were killed in the surprise airstrike, including the son of its top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, but its key leaders all survived. Qatar said a member of its Internal Security Force was also killed.

Who said what

Attacking Qatar, a key U.S. ally, was a “stunning escalation” by Israel that “risked upending talks aimed at winding down the war and freeing hostages,” said The Associated Press. Trump “gave what appeared to be conflicting accounts” of whether the U.S. had been notified of the attack beforehand, The New York Times said, but he insisted on social media it was “a decision made by Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu” and “not a decision made by me.” Trump told reporters he was “very unhappy” and “not thrilled” about Israel’s strike, but added in a statement that “eliminating Hamas” was a “worthy goal.”

The president’s response “amounted to an acknowledgment that Israeli leaders felt sufficiently unbound from obligations to Washington to undertake military action that might complicate Trump’s goal of ending the Gaza conflict,” The Washington Post said. The strike marked a “new frontier in what Israel believes it can get away with,” Al Jazeera said, and Israel will “keep escalating if the global powers don’t stop it.”

Netanyahu said “Israel takes full responsibility” for the Doha attack, and “the days are over that terrorist leaders will have immunity anywhere.” Qatar, considered neutral ground, knew it was “not completely off limits” from Israeli attacks, Cinzia Bianco, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera. But the “defiance and unhinged recklessness” of Israel’s attack surprised “everyone.”

What next?

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said Doha would continue mediating the Gaza talks but Israel was clearly trying to “sabotage every attempt to create opportunities for peace.” Netanyahu’s “barbarism” was “dragging the region to a place where it unfortunately cannot be repaired,” he said, and “there must be a response from the entire region to such barbaric actions.”

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