‘State terrorism’: Qatar PM leads Arab world fury at Israel for striking Hamas leaders in Doha

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, with the Qatari prime minister accusing Israel of “state terrorism.”

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 Tuesday evening that Israel was optimistic that they were killed, though Hamas claimed the top officials survived the attack.

Speaking to reporters hours after the attack, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al-Thani charged: “The Israeli attack that took place today on Qatari soil can only be described as state terrorism practiced by someone like [Benjamin] Netanyahu.”

He accused the Israeli prime minister of “ongoing attempts” to destabilize regional security and stability.”

“There is a rogue player in this region,” he added, and “there should be a response from the entire region to these barbaric actions, which reflect nothing but the savagery of this individual.” The attack “not only violated international laws,” he said, “but also breached ethical standards.”

Qatar, he noted, was mediating negotiations on a Gaza deal, and Israel had “launched missiles at the negotiating delegation from the other side.”

“Qatar… reserves the right to respond to this blatant attack,” he also said, noting that “the Israeli enemy used weaponry that our radars did not identify.”

Noting that Netanyahu has declared “that he will reshape the Middle East,” Al-Thani asked: “Is this a message that he also intends to reshape the Gulf?”

He also denied being warned of the attack ahead of time by the US. “The attack happened at 3.46 [on Tuesday afternoon]. The first call we got from an American official was at 3.56.”

Al-Thani said that despite the attack, Qatar would continue mediation efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. “Nothing will deter us from continuing this mediation in the region,” Al-Thani says.

Earlier, diplomatic sources said Qatar would temporarily halt efforts.

But the US leaned on Qatar not to halt its mediation efforts, a diplomatic source told The Times of Israel.

Qatari leaders notified the Trump administration that they planned to temporarily suspend mediation, and the source said the US pressure worked in getting Qatar to reverse its initial decision.

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 in remarks before the prime minister’s press conference 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.

Qatar says talks had been progressing

While the US said it tipped off Qatar of the Israeli strike ahead of time, Qatari spokesman al-Ansari tweeted a denial.

“Statements circulating about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are false. The call received from an American official came as explosions sounded from the Israeli attack in Doha,” Ansari said.

Trump subsequently held phone calls with Qatar’s Emir Tamim and Prime Minister Al-Thani during which Doha warned the US president that the Israeli strike would only harm efforts to secure a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

Israel argues that the strike — whose exact results have not been confirmed — actually makes it easier to reach an agreement.

But a senior Qatari official who met earlier Tuesday in Washington with hostage families noted that Israel made the same assertion after it killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July 2024 and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in October 2024, a diplomatic source told The Times of Israel. A hostage deal wasn’t struck until January 2025.

The Qatari official told the hostage families that talks had been progressing in recent days following US President Donald Trump’s public threats against Hamas, the diplomatic source said. A member of the hostage family delegation confirmed this account to The Times of Israel.

An Arab mediating source was far less optimistic about the chances for a deal when he spoke to The Times of Israel, explaining that Hamas has pushed back against the idea of immediately releasing all remaining hostages without concrete guarantees that Israel will not be able to resume the war.

During the meeting with the senior Qatari official in Washington, hostage families expressed their frustration with the Israeli strike, arguing that Hamas’s leaders abroad have not been those dragging their feet on reaching an agreement and were viewed as more flexible than those in Gaza.

During their calls with Trump, the Qatari emir and premier expressed their outrage over the Israeli strike and said that they expected the US to issue a condemnation, given that it violated international law and took place on the soil of a US ally, the diplomatic source said.

Following the calls, the White House did issue a condemnation, while also lining up behind Israel’s claim that the strikes could present an “opportunity for peace” and that taking out Hamas leaders is a “worthy goal.”

Middle Eastern leaders blast Israel for ‘flagrant violation’

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.”

Abdullah bin Zayed Condemns in the Strongest Terms the Blatant Israeli Attack on Dohahttps://t.co/cv6P9Vnhqx pic.twitter.com/Ta8vIPEOl5

— MoFA وزارة الخارجية (@mofauae) September 9, 2025

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.”

Regarding Israel's Attack in Doha, Qatar https://t.co/fH6CfFvREb pic.twitter.com/GiV9uPQC1L

— Turkish MFA (@MFATurkiye) September 9, 2025

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 says strikes were a response to Monday’s attacks

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.