Israel will kill Hamas leaders next time if they survived Qatar attack, Israeli official says

By Maayan Lubell, Alexander Cornwell and Andrew Mills

JERUSALEM/DOHA (Reuters) -If Israel did not kill Hamas leaders in an air strike on Qatar on Tuesday it would succeed next time, the Israeli ambassador to the United States said after the operation, which raised concerns it would torpedo efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.

"Right now, we may be subject to a little bit of criticism. They'll get over it. And Israel is being changed for the better," Yechiel Leiter told Fox News' "Special Report" programme late on Tuesday. 

"The region is being changed for the better as we remove these enemies of peace and these enemies of Western civilization from their ability to implement terrorism."

Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack in the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday, escalating its military action in the Middle East in what the U.S. described as a unilateral attack that does not advance American and Israeli interests.

 The operation was especially sensitive because mediator Qatar has been hosting negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war which has been raging for nearly two years.

"If we didn't get them this time, we'll get them the next time," said Leiter.

LEADER'S SON KILLED

Hamas said five of its members had been killed in the attack, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya. Hamas political bureau member Suhail al-Hindi told Al Jazeera TV the group's top leadership had survived the attack. 

A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that optimism about the results of the strike has turned to doubt. The fact that it has been so many hours without a clear conclusion was troubling, particularly in an orderly country like Qatar, the official said.

Qatar, which said one of its security forces was killed in the attack, said Israel was treacherous and engaged in "state terrorism." Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said the airstrikes threatened to derail the peace talks Qatar has been mediating between Hamas and Israel.

The airstrike followed an Israeli warning to Palestinians to leave Gaza City, an area once home to about a million people, as it tries to destroy what is left of Hamas, which has been decimated by Israel's military since October 2023.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he was "very unhappy about every aspect" of the Israeli strike. 

Asked how the strike on Qatar that failed to kill the Hamas leadership would affect ceasefire negotiations, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Reuters: 

"The honest answer is, we simply don't know. Hamas has rejected everything so far. They continually reject every offer that's put on the table."

He went on to reiterate the U.S. and Israeli position that Hamas militants "have to go" and should have no future in running Gaza.

The militant group, which has ruled Gaza for nearly two decades but today controls only parts of the enclave, on Saturday once again said that it would release all hostages if Israel agreed to end the war and withdraw its forces from Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for an all-or-nothing deal that would see all of the hostages released at once and Hamas surrendering.

He has defied global condemnation of operations like the one that struck Doha on Tuesday, extending military operations across the Middle East since Hamas attacked Israel in 2023.

BUSINESS AS USUAL

In Doha, most schools and businesses opened as usual on Wednesday. In the Legtafiya neighbourhood, where the attacks occurred, a petrol station was cordoned off and schools were closed. The nearby International School of Choueifat was closed, but operated online classes.

Trump said he considered hitting Hamas was a worthy goal, but he felt bad that the attack took place in the Gulf Arab state, which is a major non-NATO ally of Washington and where the Palestinian Islamist group has long had its political base.

Qatar is host to al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East. 

Israel has killed several top Hamas leaders since the Palestinian militant group attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 soldiers and civilians and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military response in Gaza killed over 64,000 people, according to local health authorities, and reduced the Palestinian enclave to rubble while a humanitarian crisis which includes widespread starvation has shocked the world.

(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Sharon Singleton)