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11:25 11.09.2025 •
A building shows damage Tuesday after an Israeli attack that targeted Hamas members in Doha, Qatar
Photo: Reuters
“The US administration jointly responsible with the [Israeli] occupation for this crime”, ‘Al Jazeera’ quotes.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has said it notified Qatari officials before Israel’s attack on Hamas negotiators in Doha, a claim refuted by the Gulf country.
The statement from the White House on Tuesday came hours after the strike on a residential area in Qatar’s capital, Doha. Qatar has been a lead mediator in US-backed ceasefire talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
“The Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas, which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
However, Qatar refuted the characterisation, with a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs saying claims that the government had been “pre-informed of the attack are completely false”.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the call from the US came ten minutes after the attack began, describing the incident as “state terrorism”.
Hamas said the strike killed five of its members but that its main negotiating team had survived. Among the dead was a Qatari security officer, the country’s Ministry of Interior said.
Trump later said he felt “very badly about the location of the attack” and that he had assured Qatar that it would not happen again.
“This was a decision made by [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
He repeated the White House statement about the attack not advancing the goals of Israel and the US, and that he had instructed Witkoff to warn Qatar, but it was “unfortunately, too late to stop the attack”.
Hamas holds US ‘jointly responsible’
Qatar had helped to broker a pause in fighting in Gaza in November 2023 and a six-week ceasefire in January 2025. Its role has been regularly praised by both the administration of former US President Joe Biden and current President Trump.
Israel struck central Doha just days after Trump issued a warning to Hamas’s negotiating team as he pushed for a new ceasefire. The US has repeatedly accused Hamas of stalling negotiations. Israel has been accused of repeatedly scuttling the talks.
“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”
Following the attack, Hamas said those targeted had been discussing Trump’s latest proposal.
The group added that the strike “confirms beyond doubt that Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement and are deliberately seeking to thwart all opportunities and thwart international efforts”.
“We hold the US administration jointly responsible with the [Israeli] occupation for this crime, due to its ongoing support for the aggression and crimes of the occupation against our people,” the group said.
The Qatari Amiri Diwan also confirmed in a statement that the US president held a phone call with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and condemned the attack.
“For his part, His Highness the Emir affirmed that the State of Qatar condemns and denounces in the strongest terms this reckless, criminal attack and considers it a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and security and a clear breach of the rules and principles of international law,” the Diwan said.
Sheikh Tamim said the attack threatened the stability of the region and obstructed “efforts to de-escalate and reach sustainable diplomatic solutions”.
‘Reduced to nothing’
Despite the White House statements, Khalil Jahshan, the executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC, said many countries and residents in the region will still view the Trump administration as complicit.
“When Israel is given a green light to basically wreak havoc over the region and violate international law, violate sovereignty of nations that are not even enemies, but actually very close allies of the United States, one has to wonder: Where does Israel stand, and why would Israel be allowed to do that?” he said.
Qatar, which has remained a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, was designated a “major non-NATO ally” in 2022, a status the US Department of State describes as being a “powerful symbol” of close strategic ties and a demonstration of “deep respect for the friendship for the countries to which it is extended”.
Jahshan said the honorific, in the wake of Israel’s strike, has been “reduced to nothing”.
Smoke rises from the site of an explosion, purportedly from an Israeli airstrike, in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.
Photo: AP
Netanyahu pushes on toward his vision of total victory in Gaza. But with Tuesday’s actions, he risked obliterating one of the few tracks toward a negotiated settlement of this devastating and exhausting conflict, ‘The Washington Post’ stresses.
Israel’s strike on Hamas’s political leadership in Qatar’s capital, aimed at forcing an end to the Gaza war, looks like a rare Israeli tactical mistake. The attack failed to kill senior Hamas leaders but shattered one of the few channels for halting the conflict.
The symmetry of Tuesday’s assault illustrated the no-exit nightmare of the Gaza war. When the Israeli rockets struck, Hamas officials were gathered in a villa in Doha to discuss a “final offer” peace proposal from President Donald Trump that had been conveyed to them Monday by a top Qatari official. A White House call to warn of the attack came amid the sound of explosions, according to a Qatari spokesman.
Qatari officials reacted with shock and a sense of betrayal, and the strike seemed likely to destroy Qatar’s role as a mediator in the conflict — eliminating the most reliable conduit to pass messages to Hamas leaders in Gaza. Qatari sources told me that Israel and the United States promised them last month that Hamas officials would not be targeted on their territory. This assurance proved empty. Qatar now has the distinction of having been attacked by both Israel and Iran in the convulsive regional war that began Oct. 7, 2023, with Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel.
Israel’s high-risk attack signaled that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making an all-out blitz to force Hamas to surrender in the Gaza war. Netanyahu now appears so determined, and arguably desperate, to destroy Hamas that he’s busting previous norms and restraints. If you’re looking for a literary analogy, think of the moment in “Moby Dick” when Captain Ahab destroys his quadrant and goes all-in on his pursuit of the White Whale.
The Israeli action drew a tart response from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said that “unilaterally bombing” a country “that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace does not advance Israeli or America’s goals.” Leaders of Britain, France and Germany issued harsher condemnations.
Hamas said the strike didn’t kill Khalil al-Hayya or other senior officials, but it did kill his son, three bodyguards and a Qatari security officer. This is a rare miss for the Israeli air force, which has struck with stunning accuracy leaders of Hamas in Gaza, the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, and Iran.
For Qatar, the attack is a bitter outcome after aggressive attempts to help the Trump administration broker peace deals, not just in Gaza but also in the conflicts between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Qataris have also helped free American hostages in Venezuela and Russia, according to Qatari and American officials. But for many Israelis, Qatar — for all its diplomatic finesse — remains an enemy that bankrolled Hamas and hosts Al Jazeera’s sometimes inflammatory Arabic commentary.
Qatar had feared an attack after Eyal Zamir, the Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff, warned on Aug. 31 that “most of the remaining Hamas’ leadership is abroad, and we will reach them as well.” Qatar sought assurances from the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, and the White House that such an attack would not occur on Qatari soil. The pledges were given, and Tuesday’s strike “came as a total surprise,” a Qatari official told.
For Netanyahu and Trump, the question is: What’s next? Both demand a Hamas surrender. But how will they negotiate it with the Qatari channel shattered and a parallel Egyptian path probably also obstructed? By undermining diplomatic options for ending the conflict, Israel has narrowed its path forward.
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