The IDF called the attack ‘a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization’ in Doha
Israel on Tuesday morning launched a surprise airstrike on Hamas leadership inside Qatar, targeting four of the terror group’s senior leaders, including chairman Khaled Meshaal. The operation, reportedly carried out with American approval, came two days after President Donald Trump warned of severe “consequences” if Hamas rejected a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, and soon after Hamas did just that.
The IDF confirmed that it conducted “a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization” in the early morning hours around Doha, where the terror group’s senior leaders have long lived in luxury. Israel aimed to eliminate Meshaal and his top aides, including Hamas finance chief Zaher Jabarin, politburo member Nizar Awadallah, and deputy chairman Khalil al-Hayya, who held talks in Doha with senior Iranian officials earlier this week. It is unclear at this time which officials were killed in the strike, which Qatar’s Interior Ministry said hit a “Hamas residential headquarters.”
The moment of the Israeli strike on Hamas leadership in Doha pic.twitter.com/R14x4NrVfT
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) September 9, 2025
“For years, these members of the Hamas leadership have led the terrorist organization’s operations, are directly responsible for the brutal October 7th massacre, and have been orchestrating and managing the war against the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the strike “was a wholly independent Israeli operation,” making clear that American forces did not participate in an attack on a chief Arab ally. “Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.”
The strike occurred just after Hamas leaders reportedly balked at the terms of a fresh ceasefire proposal presented by the Trump administration and agreed to by Israel. The terror group refused to disarm and described the deal as a “humiliating surrender document.”
Trump said after presenting the latest peace accord on Sunday that he “warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting.”
“This is my last warning, there will not be another one!” Trump proclaimed in a message on Truth Social.
The sweeping new ceasefire plan, which Trump presented over the weekend, would have halted Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza and seen all 48 remaining hostages released alongside hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, according to Israeli reporter Amit Segal. While Israel publicly accepted that deal, Hamas leadership reportedly began meetings in Doha, split over whether to accept the terms.
Qatar had previously pressed Hamas to “respond positively” to the U.S. ceasefire proposal. When the terror group refused to do so, and Israel struck the residential compound in Doha, the Gulf state announced it would suspend “mediation efforts for a Gaza deal until further notice.”
Khalil al-Hayya and other Hamas leaders were spotted on Monday holding talks with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi at the Ritz-Carlton in Doha. The officials “discussed the latest political and field developments in Gaza, the ongoing genocide by the Zionist regime, efforts to halt its crimes, and the issue of prisoner exchange,” according to Iran’s foreign ministry.
Following that meeting, Hamas leader Basem Naim reportedly said the terror group has a “right” to jihad against Israel and “will not sign a humiliating surrender document—and there is no emperor in Hamas’s leadership like Japan’s Hirohito.”
As the terror group crafted its formal response to Trump’s peace plan, Israel unleashed its warplanes on Doha with intelligence provided by the country’s Shin Bet security agency (ISA).
“The IDF and ISA will continue to operate with determination in order to defeat the Hamas terrorist organization responsible for the October 7th massacre,” the Israeli military said in a statement. It comes in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report on Israel’s new posture of hitting terror leaders directly rather than infrastructure, a shift that “is referred to among soldiers as FAFO, an acronym for f— around and find out.”
While living in Doha and running Hamas’s operations in exile, Meshaal and his top aides proudly endorsed the Oct. 7 terror attacks, even releasing a video of them excitedly watching the bloody scene unfold:
Hearing the developments from #Doha, concerned about its repercussions especially for the hostages, but reminded of this video from October 7, that Hamas proudly distributed on that terrible day from #Qatar. pic.twitter.com/FLpJ07NoaW
— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) September 9, 2025
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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