Israel notified US ‘minutes’ before Qatar strike: Report
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) is reporting additional details of the Israeli attack on Qatar.
Citing US and Israeli officials, the WSJ said that more than 10 Israeli jets were involved in the operation and fired several long-range munitions at the house used by Hamas leaders in Doha.
The WSJ added that Israel notified the US only “minutes” before launching missiles at Qatar, and even then, it did not specify the exact location of the attack.
It said US military officials inferred the target after seeing the missiles launch. The newspaper reported that Israeli officials chose to attack because Israel had assessed that several Hamas leaders had converged in Doha to consider Trump’s latest ceasefire proposal.
It added that Israeli leaders were willing to risk straining ties with the US in undertaking the strike.
Who are the Hamas officials targeted in Israel’s attack?
Israel’s strike on Qatar reportedly targeted senior Hamas figures, including Khalil al-Hayya. Hamas has said that five of its members and a Qatari officer were killed in the strike, but its senior leaders survived.
Al-Hayya rose in importance after the killings of top Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, and military commander Mohammed Deif last year. He is currently one of five leaders steering Hamas’s leadership council.
Zaher Jabarin is believed to have also been a target of Israel’s attack. He serves as the movement’s chief financial administrator.
Hamas has identified those killed as:
- Jihad Labad – director of al-Hayya’s office
- Humam al-Hayya – al-Hayya’s son
- Abdullah Abdul Wahid – bodyguard
- Moamen Hassouna – bodyguard
- Ahmed al-Mamluk – bodyguard
Netanyahu ‘has no wish or desire to explain anything’
PM Netanyahu is in “no rush” to explain to the Israeli public why the attack on a residential complex in central Doha failed to eliminate senior Hamas figures it targeted, a political commentator says.
The Israeli leader “hasn’t explained Israel’s ultimate failure to achieve its goals when it came to the 12-day war with Iran”, noted Ori Goldberg.
“Iran signed an agreement with the IAEA yesterday, signalling a slowdown of the snapback mechanisms and return to dialogue with the rest of the world,” he told Al Jazeera.
“He has no wish or desire to explain anything. He wants the act itself done in real time. He wants blurry images, sound effects from the cockpit, and that’s all he cares about,” Goldberg said via videolink from Tel Aviv.
“Israel really doesn’t care what happens from day to day. It reboots on a daily basis. Whenever Netanyahu felt threatened … felt that his semblance of control over what was happening in Israel proper was shaken, he opened another front.”
Israel says it doesn’t ‘always act in interests of the US’
Israel’s UN envoy says his country doesn’t always follow the geopolitical objectives of its main ally the United States, a day after attacking Qatar.
“We don’t always act in the interests of the United States. We are coordinated – they give us incredible support, we appreciate that – but sometimes we make decisions and inform the United States,” Danny Danon told an Israeli radio station.
“It was not an attack on Qatar, it was an attack on Hamas,” he said, adding the decision was “the right one”.
‘We will get them next time,’ Israel says of Hamas in Qatar
Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, says Hamas’s leadership is “on notice” and “going to be eliminated”.
In response to a question by Fox News whether Israel was successful in targeting the resistance group’s leaders, Leiter responded: “If we didn’t get them this time, we will get them the next time.”
Referring to condemnation levelled at Israel by the US and Gulf states following the attack on Qatar, he added, “Right now we may be subject to a little bit of criticism. They’ll get over it.”
