Israel tried to kill top Hamas leaders

10/9/2025 17:49

If Israel did not

kill Hamas leaders in an air strike on Qatar on Tuesday it would

succeed next time, the Israeli ambassador to the United States

said after the operation, which raised concerns it would 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' "Special Report"

programme late on Tuesday.



"The region is being changed for the better as we remove

these enemies of peace and these enemies of Western civilization

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 U.S. 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," said Leiter.







LEADER'S SON KILLED

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 has turned to doubt. The fact

that it has been so many hours without a clear conclusion was

troubling, particularly in an orderly country like 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 airstrikes threatened to derail

the peace talks Qatar has been mediating between Hamas and

Israel.



The airstrike followed an Israeli warning to Palestinians to

leave Gaza City, an area once home to about a million people, as

it tries to destroy what is left of Hamas, which has been

decimated by Israel's military since October 2023.

U.S. 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, U.S. 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."



He went on to reiterate the U.S. and Israeli position that

Hamas militants "have to go" and should have no future in

running Gaza.



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 like the one

that struck Doha on Tuesday, extending military operations

across the Middle East since Hamas attacked Israel in 2023.







BUSINESS AS USUAL



In Doha, most schools and businesses opened as usual on

Wednesday. In the Legtafiya neighbourhood, where the attacks

occurred, a petrol station was cordoned off and schools were

closed. The nearby International School of Choueifat was closed,

but operated online classes.



Trump said he considered hitting Hamas was a worthy goal,

but he felt bad that the attack took place in the Gulf Arab

state, which is a major non-NATO ally of Washington and where

the Palestinian Islamist group has long had its political base.



Qatar is host to al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S.

military facility in the Middle East.



Israel has killed several top Hamas leaders since the

Palestinian militant group attacked Israel in October 2023,

killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and taking 251 hostage,

according to Israeli tallies.



Israel's military response in Gaza killed over 64,000

people, according to local health authorities, and reduced the

Palestinian enclave to rubble while a humanitarian crisis which

includes widespread starvation has shocked the world.