An Israeli strike has taken out top Hamas leaders in Qatar. The strike is among the most significant operations in the two-year-long war that followed the Oct. 7 massacre. And its aftereffects will reverberate throughout the region and beyond.
On Sept. 9, Israeli air strikes hit a compound in Doha where top Hamas apparatchiks were gathering. The operation, dubbed Summit of Fire, was ordered by Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and overseen by the country’s defense minister, Israel Katz. The strike was an exclusively Israeli operation, although the United States was reportedly notified in advance.
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Hamas casualties are currently unknown. Several of the group’s top leaders were at the compound. It might seem odd that Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group with American blood on its hands, was holding meetings mere miles from Al Udeid Air Base, a U.S. military installation. But Qatar has long hosted operatives from Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
Indeed, Hamas leaders have been living in luxury in Qatar, running up hotel bills. Meanwhile, average Gazans have had to live with the consequences of the war that Hamas and other Iranian proxies started when they invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas leaders, including several alleged to be at the compound, cheered and prayed from their hotels in Doha while their operatives perpetrated the largest massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.
For two years, Israel’s military response has largely been confined to Gaza, where Hamas is based, as well as the neighboring countries of Syria and Lebanon, where other Iranian proxies attempted to join in Hamas’s war of annihilation. Last spring and over the summer, the war expanded to include the head of the snake, Iran. Top Hamas leaders clearly thought that Israel wouldn’t dare touch them. Until now.
The Jewish state is no longer willing to play by the same old playbook, one in which terrorist leaders and financiers are allowed to direct death and destruction from safe havens such as Qatar and Turkey.
The strike further restores Israel’s deterrence. And it may encourage Hamas leaders — what’s left of them — to turn over the remaining Israeli hostages who were captured on Oct. 7. It could very well bring about an end to the war or, at the very least, a cessation of hostilities. There are other possibilities, as well.
Israel is gearing up for a military offensive in Gaza City, a dense urban environment that is perfectly suited to Hamas’s strategy of using human shields, leading to mass casualties and slow, grinding warfare. Without top leaders, Hamas fighters are likely to be demoralized, confused, and lacking direction.
Summit of Fire also stands as the latest in a line of historic Israeli military operations. In the last two years, Israel has carried out more successful decapitation strikes than any other power in modern history. Hezbollah in Lebanon, top regime officials in Iran, and leading Houthi members in Yemen have all been decimated, their forces severely degraded, and their leadership buried. The strike showcases Israel as the region’s unquestioned military power, with intelligence capabilities and reach that no other American ally possesses.
ISRAEL’S RIGHTEOUS STRIKE ON HAMAS IN QATAR
The operation also benefits the United States. On Sept. 7, President Donald Trump took to social media to warn Hamas to accept peace proposals and release hostages, writing, “This is my last warning, there will not be another one!” America’s enemies should have no doubt that our words have meaning.
As the late Secretary of State George Schultz famously said: “Negotiations are a euphemism for capitulation if the shadow of power is not cast across the bargaining table.” That shadow is cast.
The writer is a Senior Research Analyst for CAMERA, the 65,000-member, Boston-based Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis