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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If Israel did notkill Hamas leaders in an air strike on Qatar on Tuesday it wouldsucceed next time, the Israeli ambassador to the United Statessaid after the operation, which raised concerns it would torpedoefforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.“Right now, we may be subject to a little bit of criticism.They’ll get over it. And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n