Israeli Airstrike Targets Top Hamas Leaders, Upending Ceasefire Talks

The Washington Post

15:06 JST, September 10, 2025

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military carried out an airstrike Tuesday on the villa of a senior Hamas leader in the Qatari capital, Doha, seeking to assassinate much of the militant group’s leadership, but Hamas said the attack had failed to kill any of its senior figures.

The raid, which struck Qatar’s modern and typically peaceful capital, threw into turmoil the ongoing diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war and free Israeli hostages held for almost two years in the enclave.

The Israeli strike targeted Hamas chief Khalil al-Hayya, who has been leading the indirect negotiations with Israel, as well as Zaher Jabarin, another senior Hamas official, an Israeli official said. In a statement, Hamas said al-Hayya had survived the attack but it had killed al-Hayya’s son and the director of al-Hayya’s office, as well as three bodyguards and an officer from Qatar’s Internal Security Forces.

The strike provoked outrage from Qatar, a major U.S. ally that has been playing a key role in mediating the negotiations and hosting Israeli and Hamas delegations. At the time of the attack, a ceasefire proposal recently put forward by the Trump administration was on the bargaining table.

President Donald Trump was also unusually harsh in criticizing Israel for carrying out the strike. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He added, “However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.”

In a phone call, Trump assured Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil,” according to White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt. While tiny, the Gulf country of Qatar is important for U.S. interests because it hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East.

Qatari officials accused Israel of trying to sabotage the ceasefire talks. “What happened today is state terrorism and an attempt to destabilize regional security and stability, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leading the region to an irreversible level,” said Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said in a televised address. “These missiles were used to attack the negotiating delegation of the other party. By what moral standards is this acceptable?”

The prime minister said Qatar will continue to work to end hostilities in Gaza but dismissed the possibility of making progress in ceasefire talks “right now, right after we’ve seen such an attack like this.”

The Israeli strike drew broad international criticism, not only from such Arab countries as Egypt and Saudi Arabia but also European ones such as Britain and France.

The effort to eliminate a bevy of Hamas leaders in the midst of negotiations represented a major strategic gamble by Netanyahu and could doom the chances of a hostage deal. By targeting Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, the military operation was also diplomatically risky.

As images emerged of al-Hayya’s ruined residence – located in an upscale neighborhood filled with embassies and schools – Netanyahu told a gathering sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem that he had authorized the airstrike earlier that day and that Israel had acted “wholly independently … and we take full responsibility for this action.”

He described the airstrike as part of Israel’s ongoing response to Hamas’s attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people. “At the beginning of the war, I promised that Israel would reach those who perpetrated that horror,” Netanyahu said. “Today that was done.”

Hamas in its statement called the raid “a heinous crime, a flagrant act of aggression, and a blatant violation of all international norms and laws.”

The attack immediately provoked questions about whether the United States had advance knowledge of the airstrike or helped Israel carry it out.

Israeli officials said the United States had “green-lit” the attack in Doha. Trump, in his post on Truth Social, disavowed any role in the attack and said his administration had learned about it from the U.S. military. He said he then directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris, which Witkoff did. Qatari officials said they received the American warning 10 minutes after the bombing began amid the sounds of explosions in Doha.

Some Middle East analysts cited parallels between Tuesday’s strike and Israel’s surprise attack against Iran in June, which Netanyahu launched – with Trump’s foreknowledge – while Iran was still in the middle of negotiations with the United States over its nuclear program.

Khaled Elgindy, a Palestinian affairs expert and visiting scholar at Georgetown University, said the talks over a ceasefire in Gaza were just “a cover” for Netanyahu to intensify Israel’s war. “To kill the people you’re supposedly negotiating with is audacious, but it’s perfectly in line with everything Israel has done over the last two years,” said Elgindy, who was an adviser to Palestinian negotiators before 2010.

Hours before Netanyahu authorized the airstrike on Tuesday, the Israeli military announced a sweeping “evacuation” order for all of Gaza City ahead of a ground campaign to capture the city. Since the Israeli government approved the plan to seize Gaza City on Aug. 21, Israeli officials have said they would carry it out if no ceasefire agreement reached. Many Israelis critical of how Netanyahu has waged the war have warned that this offensive could jeopardize the lives of the hostages still held by Hamas and its allies.

Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said the attack in Qatar could put them in even greater danger. “There was already significant risk to the Israeli hostages and now that’s heightened even more because of the possibility of some sort of Hamas retaliation,” he said. “There was no real optimism of a ceasefire deal before today from the Israeli side and certainly less so now.”

On multiple occasions over the past 18 months, Israel and Hamas have edged closer to a ceasefire deal only to back away from it, with each side accusing the other of standing in the way of an agreement.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage exchange in January under pressure from Trump, but Netanyahu broke the ceasefire and resumed the war in March, claiming Hamas was not negotiating a permanent settlement in good faith. Throughout the spring, Israel agreed to a proposal put forward by Witkoff to free half the remaining hostages, Israeli officials say. But Netanyahu changed his position after talks fell apart in July and publicly demanded that Hamas free all its hostages at once – a position echoed by Trump.

On Sunday, Trump said he was giving Hamas a “final warning” to accept his proposal that they release all the hostages. Hamas officials said they would discuss the proposals with mediators. But on Tuesday, Netanyahu struck.