Israel launched airstrikes wrecking havoc in Doha in Operation Summit of Fire, sparking fury across Middle East

Thick black smoke billowed after Israel targeted Hamas’ leadership gathered in the Qatari capital to discuss US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposals

Foreign media list among senior leadership killed as Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya and Khaled Mashal, head of the external politburo in Qatar, as well as Zaher Jabarin and Nizar Awadallah

Hamas initially claimed it’s leadership in attendance at the meeting, all survived the attack, while six others, including a Qatari security officer, were killed

Hamas has since confirmed the killing of five of its members, including the son of the group’s exiled Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya

Israel’s Defense Forces announced the joint operation with the Israel Security Agency, Shin Bet, to conduct ‘a precise strike targeting the senior leadership’ of Hamas

Doha condemned Israel’s ‘State Terrorism’ as a ‘cowardly’ attack, and a ‘flagrant violation to all international law’

Qatar is a formal U.S. partner and major non-NATO ally, the White House said the Trump administration was ‘notified’ about the attack

Thick black smoke billowing from a building after Israel bombed a building in Doha, on August 9, 2025, targeting Hamas’ leadership gathered in the Qatari capital to discuss US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposals

Israel On Tuesday carried out unprecedented strikes in Qatar, targeting Hamas’ leadership in as where multiple explosions were heard in the capital of a country widely regarded as among the most peaceful countries in the Middle East.
Footage of the carnage in Doha today showed a massive explosion and thick black smoke billowing from a building as Israel launched airstrikes in the Qatari capital. The country’s government condemned the ‘cowardly’ attack, described as a ‘flagrant violation to all international law’.
Israel Defense Forces [IDF], announcing the joint operation with Israel’s Security Agency, Shin Bet, described as ‘a precise strike targeting the senior leadership’ of Hamas, adding that ‘measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians’, and vowed to ‘continue to operate … to defeat the Hamas terrorist organization’, even as a senior Israeli official told Israeli media the attack aimed at top Hamas leadership including its Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, had targeted the residential homes of Hamas officials.

Viral footage shows the moment of an explosion in Doha today during strikes said to be targeting senior Hamas leaders attending a meeting, as Israeli officials confirmed the attack aimed at top Hamas leaders, targeted their residential homes

In contrast, Hamas has said that the Israeli strikes targeted officials during a meeting to discuss Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposals. Negotiators were reportedly hit, and explosions rocked a Hamas compound. There have been no official reports on casualties in the Israeli air strike on Qatar on Tuesday morning.
A report, quoting Hamas sources, initially said the Hamas leadership in attendance all survived the attack, while six others, including a Qatari security officer, were killed. Hamas has since confirmed the killing of five of its members, including the son of the group’s exiled Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya.
Contradictory reports quickly began to emerge as foreign channels reported that Khalil al-Hayya, the leader of Hamas, and Khaled Mashal, the head of the external politburo in Qatar, were killed in the attack along with Zaher Jabarin and Nizar Awadallah. 

This building on Wadi Rawdan Street, north of central Doha, was heavily damaged in the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, on September 9

The Qatari government furious with Israel’s actions, immediately condemned the ‘cowardly’ strikes, described as a ‘flagrant violation to all international law’.
Iran joined in denouncing the ‘gross violation of all international rules and regulations’.
The U.S.’ largest military base in the Middle East, Al Udeid, is in Qatar.
One media report quotes a White House official who said the Trump administration was ‘notified’ about the attack in Qatar, a formal U.S. partner and major non-NATO ally, before it happened.  That the White House was notified by the US military that Israel was targeting Hamas, and President Donald Trump spoke to Netanyahu following the attack.
Other sources claim Trump was only informed after the attack had begun.

Smoke rises after blasts were heard on Tuesday morning in the capital of Qatar, a formal U.S. partner and major non-NATO ally. The White House said the Trump administration was ‘notified’ about the attack

Hamas members had reportedly met in the city to discuss Trump’s ceasefire proposals at the time of the airstrikes.
A building complex on Wadi Rawdan Street, north of central Doha, was heavily damaged in the attack. According to one of their official, ‘the Hamas negotiating delegation was targeted during its meeting in Doha, while discussing President Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip’.
The Israeli military named the operation targeting the meeting ‘Summit of Fire’.
As Israeli media quote the official report that Hamas leader Khaled Mashal was among the leaders in attendance targeted, the Saudi Al Arabiya network reported that Mashal was among those killed, alongside at least two other senior officials. even as Hamas initially denied the claims, stating that all members attending the meeting survived the ‘assassination attempt’.
Saudi channels had also report that other senior Hamas figures include Khalil al-Hayya, Zaher Jabarin and Nizar Awadallah died in the airstrikes.
Hamas since has acknowledged casualties, presenting a different list among them Humam Al-Hayya – the son of it’s key negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya.
Other Hamas casualties were identified as Jihad Labad, the director of al-Hayya’s office, Ahmed Al-Mamluk, Abdullah Abdul Wahid and Moamen Hassouna.
The sixth name on the Hamas casualty list is Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed Al-Humaidi, a member of Qatar’s internal security forces.

True or False? Unconfirmed foreign media reports claim Khalil al-Hayya [photo], was killed along with other senior Hamas leaders Zaher Jabarin and Nizar Awadallah in the Israeli air strike on Qatar on Tuesday morning

True or False? Other senior Hamas leadership killed according Saudi media include former political bureau chief of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, [photo]

Qatar has long played a role in trying to mediate ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas’ most senior leader, al-Hayya, left the city of Doha when Qatar suspended its mediation efforts late last year.
al-Hayya is based in Qatar and has headed Hamas negotiators in indirect Gaza truce talks with Israel.
Hayya has been widely seen as the group’s most influential figure abroad since Ismail Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Iran in July 2024. He is part of a five-man leadership council that has led Hamas since Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel last October in Gaza.
Regarded as having good ties with Iran, a vital source of arms and finance for Hamas, he has been closely involved in the group’s efforts to broker several truces with Israel, playing a key role in ending a 2014 conflict and again in attempts to secure an end to the current Gaza war. 
Mashal, the head of the group’s ‘external’ politburo based in Qatar, has been a central figure at the top of Hamas since the late 1990s, though he has worked mostly from the relative safety of exile as Israel plotted to assassinate other prominent Hamas figures based in the Gaza Strip. 

The traffic gridlock paralyzed Doha as smoke rises after several blasts were heard in the Qatari capital on on Tuesday

Israeli media reports said Donald Trump gave his blessing to the airstrikes two days after issuing a ‘last warning’ to Hamas, in contradiction to the official position of the prime minister’s office that Israel conducted unilateral action in Qatar.
‘Today’s action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation,’ Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a social media post.
‘Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.’
Issuing a joint statement PM Netanyahu and the defense minister issued linked the strikes to Mondays gun attack in East Jerusalem shooting killed six people – Tuesday’s strikes came shortly after Hamas praised two Palestinian ‘resistance fighters’ who launched the attack, hailing the attack without claiming responsibility.
‘The prime minister and defense minister believed the operation was completely justified in light of the fact that this Hamas leadership initiated and organized the October 7 massacre, and has not ceased to launch murderous actions against the State of Israel and its citizens since then,’ the statement read.
The strikes also come less than two weeks after Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir vowed to target the group’s leaders based abroad.
‘Most of Hamas’s leadership is abroad, and we will reach them as well,’ Zamir said on August 31.

US and Qatar are strong allies. The White House said President Donald Trump [right], was informed ahead of the attacks which has been condemned by Qatar’s Prime minister Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani [left], as ‘State terrorism’, which will not be tolerated

Hamas and Israel have held multiple rounds of indirect ceasefire negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States throughout the nearly two-year Gaza war.
Despite two temporary truces, the talks have failed to bring a lasting end to the war.
Hamas said Sunday it was ready to ‘immediately sit at the negotiating table’ following what it described as ‘some ideas from the American side aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement’.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday he was issuing a ‘last warning’ to Hamas, insisting it accept a deal to release the hostages seized during the October 2023 attack which sparked the war.
Qatar has said it ‘will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty’.
Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani who said Israel’s attack on Doha can only be interpreted as “state terrorism”, reportedly told President Trump in a phone call that Qatar considers today’s event a “reckless criminal attack” by Israel, and his country “will take all necessary measures to protect its security and preserve its sovereignty”.

Smoke rises over the Katara District in Doha on Tuesday morning following Israeli airstrikes

The UN joined in denouncing the attack, warning that upending the negotiation process threatened to collapse ongoing ceasefire talks, with Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calling Tuesday’s strikes as a ‘flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.’
Guterres who enjoined all parties to work towards a permanent solution points out that Qatar has been playing a very positive role to try and achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages held by Hamas.
Palestine President Mahmud Abbas, issued a statement condemning the attack calling it ‘a blatant violation of international law and an escalation that threatens regional security and stability’.
Saudi Arabia whose tentative overtures towards normalization of relations with Israel has been disrupted by the war in Gaza, said: ‘The Kingdom affirms its full solidarity and support for Qatar, placing all its capabilities at its disposal to assist in any measures it may take, while warning of the grave consequences of the Israeli occupation’s persistent criminal assaults and its blatant violations of the principles of international law and all international norms.’ 
Meanwhile the Arab League which has 22 member states condemned the attack. Israeli “behavior has now gone beyond all established international norms and every principle of international law, placing a clear responsibility on the international community to deal with a state that mocks the law and disregards the consequences of its shameful actions,” the League said in a statement.