Israel vows to kill any Hamas survivors of Qatar attack

If Israel did not kill Hamas leaders in an air strike on Qatar it would succeed next time, the Israeli ambassador to the United States says after the operation, amid concerns it will torpedo efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.

“Right now, we may be subject to a little bit of criticism. They’ll get over it. And Israel is being changed for the better,” Yechiel Leiter told Fox News late on Tuesday.

“The region is being changed for the better as we remove these enemies of peace and these enemies of Western civilisation from their ability to implement terrorism.”

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday, escalating its military action in the Middle East in what the US described as a unilateral attack that does not advance American and Israeli interests.

The operation was especially sensitive because mediator Qatar has been hosting negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war which has been raging for nearly two years.

“If we didn’t get them this time, we’ll get them the next time,” Leiter said.

Hamas said five of its members had been killed in the attack, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.

Hamas political bureau member Suhail al-Hindi told Al Jazeera TV the group’s top leadership had survived the attack.

A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that optimism about the results of the strike had turned to doubt.

The fact it had been so many hours without a clear conclusion was troubling, particularly in an orderly country such as Qatar, the official said.

Qatar, which said one of its security forces was killed in the attack, said Israel was treacherous and engaged in “state terrorism”.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said the air strikes threatened to derail the peace talks Qatar had been mediating between Hamas and Israel.

The air strike followed an Israeli warning to Palestinians to leave Gaza City, as it tries to destroy what is left of Hamas, which has been decimated by Israel’s military since October 2023.

US President Donald Trump said he was “very unhappy about every aspect” of the Israeli strike.

Asked how the strike on Qatar that failed to kill the Hamas leadership would affect ceasefire negotiations, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Reuters: “The honest answer is, we simply don’t know. Hamas has rejected everything so far. They continually reject every offer that’s put on the table.”

The militant group, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, on Saturday once again said that it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw its forces from Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.

He has defied global condemnation of operations such as the one that struck Doha on Tuesday, extending military operations across the Middle East since Hamas attacked Israel in 2023.

In Doha, most schools and businesses opened as usual on Wednesday, while in the Legtafiya neighbourhood, where the attacks occurred, a petrol station was cordoned off and schools were closed.

Trump said hitting Hamas was a worthy goal, but he felt bad the attack took place in the Gulf Arab state, which is a major ally of Washington and where the Palestinian Islamist group has its political base.

Qatar is host to al-Udeid Air Base, the largest US military facility in the Middle East.

Israel has killed several top Hamas leaders since the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1200 soldiers and civilians and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s military response in Gaza killed more than 64,000 people, according to local health authorities, and reduced the Palestinian enclave to rubble while a humanitarian crisis that includes widespread starvation has shocked the world.