This frame grab taken from AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing after explosions in Qatar's capital Doha yesterday. Israel carried out air strikes on Doha in an operation targeting senior leaders of Palestinian militant group Hamas. Photo / Jacqueline Penney, AFP
In only a matter of weeks, Israel has bombed a number of its Middle Eastern neighbours.
It killed the Prime Minister of the Houthi rebel-led government in Yemen and a number of other Cabinet ministers in an August 28 strike on the Yemeni capital, Sana’a.
It keeps pounding targets in nearby Syria and Lebanon, after launching a ground invasion into both countries at various points.
With relentless bombardments and raids, it continues to pile the pressure on Palestinians in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and the West Bank, over which the prospect of unilateral Israeli annexation recently loomed.
And earlier in the northern summer, it triggered a 12-day war with Iran, degrading the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities while coaxing the United States into launching major strikes of its own.
This was all before the brazen escalation yesterday when Israel targeted the senior political leadership of militant group Hamas at residences in Doha, Qatar’s capital.
The attack failed to take out Hamas leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, a central figure in the group, but killed his son and a top aide, Hamas said in a statement.
At the time of writing, the reported death toll stood at six; at least one person killed was a member of the Qatari state’s internal security services.
Qatar is a close US ally and hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East.
Since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, Doha has also been a pivotal staging ground for fitful diplomatic efforts to forge a ceasefire in Gaza.
Much to the ire of the Israeli political establishment and commentariat, the Qataris have allowed Hamas delegations to maintain a presence in their capital for years, as part of the petro-state’s self-styled role as a global intermediary and peace broker.
There was nothing secretive about this accommodation. Qatar gave space to delegations from groups such as Hamas and the Afghan Taliban with implicit American backing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also long encouraged Qatar’s bankrolling of Hamas-run bureaucracies in Gaza as a tacit method to split the Palestinian national movement, which was divided between Hamas in Gaza and the more-recognised Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Yesterday Netanyahu’s allies exulted in claiming yet another extra-territorial scalp.
“This is a message to all of the Middle East,” Amir Ohana, the speaker of Knesset, Israel’s parliament, posted on X, alongside footage that seemed to show explosions in Doha.
Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right ideologue banned by numerous European countries, invoked divine providence in a post on social media that warned “terrorists are not immune from the long arm of Israel anywhere in the world”.
Smotrich and other hard-liners in Netanyahu’s coalition have been opposed to any diplomatic process with Hamas.
They have called for the conquest of Gaza and encouraged “voluntary migration” of its two million Palestinians, while pursuing an aggressive policy of settlement expansion in the West Bank.
The war that sprawled after October 7 has seen Israel systematically erode the capabilities of enemy factions throughout the region, showcasing its tactical prowess on numerous occasions.
Shielded by the US on the world stage, it has carried out daily deadly strikes on Palestinian territory and foreign countries, often killing civilians, with seeming impunity.
Robert Malley, a former top Middle East official in the Obama and Biden administrations, suggested to my colleagues that the strike on Doha seemed to confirm that the Israeli Government’s vision for success against its terrorist foes amounted to “utter devastation and unconditional surrender”.
That’s when many of its neighbours are trying to find a political path that could end the war, free Israeli hostages, help Palestinians rebuild and also better integrate Israel into the region.
“Israel is also sending the message that no Palestinian is safe anywhere, not even in the capital of a close American partner, key intermediary between Israelis and Palestinians, and lucrative financial source for many in the Trump orbit,” Malley said.
“What must they be thinking in Egypt or Turkey? Will its officials want to meet with today’s Hamas leaders, who are tomorrow’s potential targets?”
Netanyahu, for his part, tried to spin the move forward.
“On this day, as in previous days, Israel acted wholly independently … and we take full responsibility for this action,” he said. “This action can open the door to an end of the war.”
If that’s the Israeli line after violating Qatar’s sovereignty, few are buying it.
Even the Trump Administration issued a note of caution.
“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,” President Donald Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, where he added that hitting Hamas was still “a worthy goal”.
Across the Middle East, the reaction was far more scathing, with the entire Arab world rallying around Qatar.
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which successive US administrations have wanted to see normalise ties with the Jewish state, denounced “the brutal Israeli aggression and the blatant violation” of Qatari sovereignty and “the Israeli occupation’s persistent criminal assaults and its blatant violations of the principles of international law and all international norms”.
The United Arab Emirates, which has formal diplomatic relations with Israel and a historic antipathy to Qatar, called the Doha attack “blatant and cowardly” and an “irresponsible escalation”.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also the emirate’s Foreign Minister, called the attack “state terrorism” and vowed an unspecified response.
He was gloomy about the near-term prospects for diplomacy. “When it comes to the current talks, I don’t think there is something valid right now right after we’ve seen such an attack like this,” he said.
Analysts concurred.
Israel has “literally blown up any kind of ceasefire negotiations”, Khaled Elgindy, a Palestinian affairs expert and visiting scholar at Georgetown University, told my colleague Claire Parker.
“It’s clear the negotiations were just cover for continuing the war, and especially the ethnic cleansing plan and demolishing Gaza City. I think now we know with certainty that there is no ceasefire deal.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said “the Government needs to explain how this action won’t lead to the killing of hostages [in Gaza] and if risk to their lives was taken into account when deciding on this action”.
Einav Zangauker, the anti-war activist mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, told Israeli newspaper Haaretz that she was “shaking with fear”.
She asked: “Why does the Prime Minister insist on blowing up any deal that comes close to happening? Why?”
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