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JERUSALEM: If Israel failed to kill Hamas leaders in an airstrike on Qatar on Tuesday, it would succeed next time, the Israeli ambassador to the US 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” program late on Tuesday.

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 US described as a unilateral attack that does not advance American and Israeli interests.

The widely condemned Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating in negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

“If we didn’t get them this time, we’ll get them the next time,” Leiter said.

On Wednesday, Israel struck the Yemeni capital Sanaa, after killing Houthi Prime Minister Ahmad Ghaleb Al-Rahwi and other senior figures in an attack in late August.

Witnesses said the Wednesday attack targeted the Houthi Defense Ministry, while Israeli Army Radio reported that Houthi headquarters and military camps were among the targets.

The Israeli military confirmed it had attacked Yemen in a statement.

The Houthis have attacked vessels in the Red Sea in what they describe as acts of solidarity with the Palestinians since the beginning of the war in Gaza.

Hamas said five of its members were killed in the Doha attack, including the son of its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya. It said its top leaders survived.

The Doha 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.

Residents there expressed alarm the Doha strike might destroy chances for a ceasefire.

Families, some carrying their belongings on vehicles, donkey carts and rickshaws, continued to stream out of Gaza City along the coastal road in anticipation of a major Israeli offensive. 

“Does this mean there is no hope a ceasefire can be reached? I am afraid that now Israel would speed up its occupation of Gaza City,” said Um Tamer, 65, a mother of five.

At least 30 people were killed across the enclave on Wednesday, according to medics.

Asked how the strike would affect ceasefire negotiations, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said: “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.”

Israel has killed over 64,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to local health authorities, and reduced the Palestinian enclave to rubble.

DOHA: Qatar’s prime minister warned Wednesday that an unprecedented Israeli strike in Doha targeting Hamas killed hope for Gaza hostages, calling for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be “brought to justice.”
His comments came a day after deadly strikes targeted Hamas leaders in Qatar — a US ally — a first in the oil-rich Gulf that rattled a region long shielded from conflict.
“I think that what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages,” Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told CNN.
Doha is “reassessing everything” around their involvement in future ceasefire talks and discussing next steps with Washington, he added in comments cited in CNN’s live blog after an interview with the broadcaster.
The attack, just three months after Iran launched a retaliatory strike on a US air base in Qatar, also cast serious doubt on Qatar-mediated Gaza ceasefire talks and undermined security reassurances to the Gulf from key ally Washington.
Earlier Wednesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed that Israel would “act against its enemies anywhere” while Netanyahu urged Qatar to expel Hamas officials or hold them to account, “because if you don’t, we will.”
Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political bureau since 2012 with Washington’s blessing, and has been a key mediator in Gaza talks alongside Egypt and the United States.
Israel’s military said it struck Houthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, including in the capital Sanaa, killing 35 people according to the militants.
Palestinian militant group Hamas said six people were killed in Tuesday’s strikes in Qatar, but its senior leaders had survived, affirming “the enemy’s failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation.”
The White House said Trump did not agree with Israel’s decision to take military action.
Trump said he was not notified in advance and when he heard, asked his envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar immediately — but the attack had already started.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sought to justify the decision, telling an Israeli radio station: “It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas.”

‘Shaken conscience of world’ 

Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said Israel “represents a real danger to the security and stability of the region.”
“It is in an open war with everyone, not just with the Palestinian people,” he said.
In Gaza City on Wednesday, the Israeli military destroyed another high-rise building as it intensified its assault on the territory’s largest urban center, despite mounting calls to end its campaign.
The military issued an evacuation warning to those living in and around the Tiba 2 tower, before later saying it had “struck a high-rise building that was used by the Hamas terrorist organization.”
AFP images showed huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky as the residential tower in western Gaza City crashed to the ground.
In the aftermath, young girls rushed to pick dust-covered dough out of the rubble.
Siham Abu Al-Foul told AFP she couldn’t take anything with her when the army issued the evacuation orders.
“They brought down the tower and we came running and there was nothing left... Everything we fixed in two years was gone in a minute.”
The Israeli military said it had struck 360 targets since Friday and vowed that it would “increase the pace of targeted strikes” in the Gaza City area in the coming days.
The Gaza war has created catastrophic humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million, with the United Nations last month declaring a famine in Gaza City and its surroundings.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she would push to sanction “extremist” Israeli ministers and curb trade ties over the dire situation.
“What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world,” she said.

‘Not thrilled’ 

Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders in Qatar sparked international condemnation.
Trump said he was not notified in advance of the Israeli strikes and was “not thrilled about the whole situation.”
“I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the US, and feel very badly about the location of the attack,” he said in a social media post, adding Hamas’s elimination was still a “worthy goal.”
Canada said it was reassessing its relationship with Israel following the Doha strikes.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the assault, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,656 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.