A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, according to an Israeli official, in Doha, Qatar. Photograph: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
We’re closing this blog soon. In the meantime, here’s a rundown of the latest developments:
Donald Trump has said that Israel’s decision to attack Hamas leaders in Qatar was made by Benjamin Netanyahu alone and not by him. As questions continue to swirl over the timeline and sequence of events that led to the US being told of Israel’s attack on Doha, and over the level and nature of Trump’s involvement, if any, the US president wrote a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform distancing himself from the strikes.
Six people were killed in the strike on Doha, according to Hamas, but its top leadership, including the team negotiating for a peace deal in Gaza, survived the attack. The dead included the son of its exiled Gaza chief, Khalil al-Hayya, and an aide to the leader, along with a member of Qatar’s internal security forces.
Trump and White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the US military informed the Trump administration on Tuesday morning that Israel was going to strike Doha. But Leavitt would not answer when asked who informed the US military.
The White House also called the incident “unfortunate”, saying Trump “views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States, and feels very badly about the location of the attack” – but stopped short of condemnation. In a carefully worded statement, Trump said that “unilaterally bombing inside Qatar … does not advance Israel or America’s goals” but added that “eliminating Hamas … is a worthy goal”.
Qatari prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that US officials first warned Qatar of the Israeli attack 10 minutes after it began, describing the strike as “100% treacherous”. Al-Thani poured water on US claims that Qatar was given advanced warning of the attack, and blamed Israel for sabotaging what he said were chances for peace, sharply criticizing Netanyahu whom he said practiced “state terrorism”. He also said that mediation efforts are part of the Qatari identity and nothing would deter its role in that regard.
Qatar also told the United Nations Security Council that it will “not tolerate this reckless Israeli behaviour and the ongoing disruption of regional security”. “The state of Qatar strongly condemns this cowardly criminal assault, which constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms,” Qatar’s UN ambassador Alya Ahmed Saif Al-Thani wrote to the council on Tuesday in a letter seen by Reuters.
The security council is to meet on Wednesday to discuss the attack on Qatar, AFP reported, citing diplomatic sources.
Turkey accused Israel of adopting “terrorism as state policy” while UK prime minister Keir Starmer said it “violated Qatar’s sovereignty and risked further escalation across the region”. But UK sources confirmed that the prime minister still intended to meet the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, in London on Wednesday.
In other news, Trump announced that Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was kidnapped in Iraq over two years ago, had been released from captivity by Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah. Tsurkov, a Princeton University researcher, went missing in Iraq during a research trip in March 2023.
The flotilla attempting to reach Gaza reported that one of its boats, the British-flagged Alma had been hit by a suspected drone strike while docked in Tunisia, calling it a “very clear intimidation tactic to keep us from setting sail tomorrow”. The report came a day after the group said another of its vessels was struck in Tunisian waters.
Updated
After the request by Algeria we reported on earlier, AFP is now reporting that the UN security council will meet on Wednesday to discuss the Israeli attack on Qatar.
