Israel on Tuesday struck a gated compound in Doha’s Leqtaifiya district used by Hamas’ Political Bureau as senior figures weighed a US-backed ceasefire and hostage proposal. According to Israeli media, the attack involved 15 fighter jets, which dropped 10 bombs, killing six people. These included a Qatari security officer and the son of Khalil al-Hayya, a member of Hamas’ five-member temporary governing committee. Hamas said its top leadership survived in what appears to be the first publicly acknowledged Israeli strike on Qatari territory.

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Qatar’s Interior Ministry said the explosions in Doha were caused by an Israeli strike on residential headquarters used by Hamas leaders—an attack that jolted the Gulf state’s mediator role and injected fresh risk into ceasefire diplomacy. Israel’s government publicly asserted the operation was wholly Israeli.

The attack is unprecedented in history

A senior research assistant at a Doha-based policy institute, who spoke to The Media Line on condition of anonymity to discuss security-sensitive matters, said the incident shocked Qatari society: “The attack is unprecedented in history.” He called it “the first Israeli attack ever on a Gulf country” and an assault on “the sovereignty of a Gulf state.” It felt like a blow “to the Gulf as a whole,” he said, noting leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE phoned the emir. “For people inside the country, it was terrifying.” Staff in his office rushed to windows after a shockwave from a blast “right in the middle of Doha,” unlike earlier Iranian strikes outside the city.