DOHA, Qatar — Israel carried out rare airstrikes inside Qatar on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, targeting senior members of Hamas’s political bureau in a move that escalates tensions across the region and threatens fragile ceasefire negotiations.
Explosions rocked central Doha shortly after noon, sending smoke into the skies near the upscale West Bay Lagoon district.
Verified footage showed a damaged complex close to the Woqod petrol station on Wadi Rawdan Street.
Qatar’s interior ministry later confirmed the blasts were caused by Israeli airstrikes.
The Israel Defense Forces said the operation involved 15 fighter jets that fired 10 precision munitions at a single compound, describing it as a “precise operation against the senior leadership of Hamas.”
Hamas acknowledged that five of its members were killed, though it said its negotiating team survived.
Israeli media reported that Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s chief negotiator, and Zaher Jabarin, a senior West Bank figure, were among those targeted, but their condition remained unclear.
Hamas accused Israel of deliberately attempting to sabotage ceasefire talks.
The Qatari government said a member of its internal security force, Warrant Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed Al-Humaidi Al-Dosari, was killed in the attack.
Several other security personnel were injured, it added.
“Relevant authorities continue to survey and secure the targeted area … to ensure effective containment and control of the situation,” Qatar’s interior ministry said in a statement.
Israel has long accused Qatar of harbouring Hamas’s political leadership, which has been based in Doha since 2012.
But until Tuesday, September 9, 2025, Israeli strikes had not crossed into Qatari territory, making the attack an unprecedented escalation.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the operation as “a wholly independent Israeli action.”
“Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility,” he said, adding that the strike “can open the door to an end of the war in Gaza.”
President Isaac Herzog called the attack “important and correct.”
The timing coincides with negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States for a truce in Gaza that would see the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas said the strike was intended to derail those talks and held Washington “jointly responsible.”
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, condemned the strikes as a “flagrant violation” of Qatar’s sovereignty.
In a video message, he warned the attack risked “undermining ongoing efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.”
“We are just learning about Israeli attacks in Qatar, a country that has been playing a very positive role to achieve a ceasefire and the release of all hostages,” Guterres said.
“All parties must work towards achieving a permanent ceasefire, not destroying it.”
Qatar, a close U.S. ally and host to one of America’s largest military bases in the region, has not indicated whether it will retaliate but confirmed that its diplomatic and security agencies were reviewing the incident.
The strike marks the first time the conflict in Gaza has spilled so directly into Qatari territory, threatening to redraw the boundaries of a war that has already destabilised the wider Middle East.
