LIVE: Israel’s deadly attack on Hamas in Qatar draws global condemnation

Israel has attacked Hamas’s leadership in the Qatari capital, Doha, drawing widespread global condemnation. Hamas says five of its members were killed in the attack, including the son of senior leader Khalil al-Hayya. A member of Qatar’s security forces was also killed.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,605 people and wounded 163,319 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.

PM Netanyahu ‘has no wish or desire to explain anything’ Israel’s leader is in “no rush” to explain to the Israeli public why the attack on a residential complex in central Doha failed to eliminate senior Hamas figures it targeted, a political commentator says.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “hasn’t explained Israel’s ultimate failure to achieve its goals when it came to the 12-day war with Iran”, noted Ori Goldberg.

“He has no wish or desire to explain anything. He wants the act itself done in real time. He wants blurry images, sound effects from the cockpit, and that’s all he cares about,” Goldberg said via videolink from Tel Aviv.

“Israel really doesn’t care what happens from day to day.  It reboots on a daily basis. Whenever Netanyahu felt threatened … felt that his semblance of control over what was happening in Israel proper was shaken, he opened another front.”

1 killed, others injured in Israeli strike on Gaza City

One person has been killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack on Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, an ambulance source says.

Survivors of Israeli strikes on Gaza City have described “apocalyptic” scenes in the Palestinian territory’s main urban centre.

The latest attack comes as Israel announced a plan last month to seize Gaza City and displace the one million Palestinians living there.

Trump administration ‘trying to have its cake and eat it too’ over Doha strike

The US government’s credibility has been weakened by its response to one of its key allies, Israel, attacking another, says Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East programme at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

“The Trump administration is trying to have its cake and eat it too,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to statements by the White House that bombing Qatar did not advance US or Israeli objectives, but that eliminating Hamas was a “worthy goal”.

“I don’t see how this is possibly beneficial for peace negotiations or any kind of ceasefire,” said Weinstein. “The very place where these negotiations were taking place has been targeted.”

Israel’s air strikes diminished US credibility in Qatar and would lead Gulf countries to question what security guarantees Washington could provide.