Qatar and Arab and Middle Eastern countries on Tuesday strongly condemned the Israeli strikes that targeted Hamas leaders gathered in Doha as a violation of international law and Qatar’s sovereignty.
According to Israeli officials, the strike was aimed at top Hamas leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, the terror group’s exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator. An official said that Israel was increasingly optimistic that they were killed, though Hamas sources claimed the top officials survived the attack.
Saying that the strike “targeted residential buildings housing several members of the Political Bureau of Hamas,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said that the “criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar.”
Ansari added that Qatar “will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty.”
Qatar is investigating “at the highest level,” he said.
According to a senior Qatari official, the strikes came as Doha was working to advance the ceasefire and hostage deal framework crafted last week by US special envoy Steve Witkoff.
“Hamas received the new US proposal from us, which we obtained from Witkoff last week in Paris,” the official said, adding that “Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani met with Hamas negotiators yesterday.”
“The Hamas delegation then decided to meet again today to discuss the proposal, traveling from Turkey to Qatar, where the strike took place,” the official added.
“However, as has happened before, the Israelis undermined hopes for peace, further prolonging the war and complicating efforts to bring back the hostages,” the senior Qatari official said in a statement.
The official’s account was corroborated by a Hamas official in Gaza, who told AFP that the group’s leaders had gathered to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal when they were targeted by Israel.
“In a new Zionist crime, the Hamas negotiating delegation was targeted during its meeting in Doha, while discussing [US] President [Donald] Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” the official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the issue.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said hours before the strikes on Tuesday that Israel accepted the new US proposal, and that “the war in Gaza can end tomorrow,” if Hamas agrees to release all hostages and to disarm.
Qatari officials met with Hamas leaders in Doha on Monday and publicly urged them to accept the proposal. However, after the attack on its territory, Qatar informed Israel that it was suspending its role as a mediator, according to unconfirmed reports in Hebrew media, effectively shutting down the negotiations that had been taking place in Doha.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also condemned the strikes and called Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani to offer support, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said.
The crown prince offered Saudi Arabia’s “full support for the sisterly State of Qatar, and its condemnation of the blatant Israeli attack on the sisterly State of Qatar, which constitutes a criminal act and a flagrant violation of international laws and norms,” the ministry said.
Saudi Arabia also said it is “deploying all its capabilities” to support Qatar and “the measures it is taking to protect its security and preserve its sovereignty.”
The United Arab Emirates, the only major Gulf country with diplomatic ties to Israel, condemned the attack “in the strongest terms,” and Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said the country was in “full solidarity with dear Qatar.”
Jordan also sharply condemned the attack, with Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi calling it “a blatant violation of international law, a serious threat to the security of the brotherly Qatari people and residents of Qatar, and an extension of the brutal Israeli aggression that threatens the security and stability of the region.”
“Israel will continue to persist in its aggression,” he continued, “its brutal wars, its violations of international law, and its threat to regional and international peace and security unless the international community, especially the Security Council, takes the necessary steps to deter it and curb its aggression.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack as “blatant Israeli aggression against Qatar.”
In a statement from his office, Abbas said the airstrikes were “a grave violation of international law and an escalation that threatens security and stability in the region.”
The statement added that “the solution lies in a just and comprehensive peace for the Palestinian cause.”
Turkey said the attack proved that Israel is not interested in peace, and that it has adopted “terrorism as a state policy.”
“The targeting of the Hamas negotiating delegation while ceasefire talks continue shows that Israel does not aim to reach peace, but rather continue the war,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
“This situation is clear proof that Israel has adopted its expansionist politics in the region and terrorism as a state policy,” it added.
Israel, for its part, said the strikes were “fully justified.” In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said it was a direct response to the deadly shooting in Jerusalem and attack on an Israeli tank in northern Gaza that took place on Monday.
According to the statement, Netanyahu told security agencies Monday night to prepare for a strike on Hamas leaders abroad, and Katz had “fully supported the move.”
Then, an “operational opportunity” was identified at noon on Tuesday, the statement added, and the IDF and Shin Bet received the green light to go ahead with the attack.
“The prime minister and defense minister believed the operation was fully justified, given that this Hamas leadership was the one that initiated and organized the October 7 massacre,” Netanyahu and Katz said, “and has since continued to carry out murderous attacks against Israel and its citizens, including taking responsibility for the murder of our civilians in yesterday’s attack in Jerusalem.”
Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.