al jazeera

By Lyndal Rowlands and Joseph Stepansky
    Israel has attacked Hamas’s leadership in the Qatari capital, Doha, in a strike that has drawn widespread global condemnation.
   Hamas says five of its members were killed in the attack, including the son of senior leader Khalil al-Hayya. A member of Qatar’s security forces was also killed.
   Qatar has condemned the “cowardly” attack and says there was no prior warning of the strike from the United States.
   Israel continues to bombard Gaza, after killing at least 52 Palestinians, including nine people seeking food aid, on Tuesday.
   Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 64,605 people and wounded 163,319 since October 2023. Thousands more are believed to be under the rubble. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.

Malaysia, New Zealand denounce Israel’s attacks on Qatar

    We have more reaction on the Israeli strike.

    New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters, said that “Israel’s strikes in Doha violate Qatar’s sovereignty, risk escalation, and undermine efforts by Qatar and the US to end the conflict”.

    “We need an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and full humanitarian access in Gaza,” Peters said in a post on X.

    “The violence must stop,” he added.

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a statement strongly condemning the attack.

    “This attack is a clear violation of the sovereignty of Qatar and a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations,” the ministry said.

    “Such violation poses a serious threat to international peace and security,” it said, calling for the UN Security Council to hold Israel accountable.

    “Malaysia stands in full solidarity with the Government and people of the State of Qatar, and reaffirms its unwavering support for the country’s sovereignty, security and stability,” it added.

    You can read how different countries from around the world have reacted here.

Israeli diplomat says US-Israel ‘united’ after Qatar strike

    Despite criticism from the Trump administration that Israel’s strike on Qatar was ill-advised, Israel’s ambassador to the US maintains that the two countries remain “united”.

    “We’ve never had a better friend than the White House than President Trump, and we’re united in the effort of eliminating Hamas as being a threat to peace in the Middle East,” Yechiel Leiter said during an interview on Fox News.

    “We have acted together in the past. We’ll act together in the future,” he said.

    Leiter also struck a defiant tone, saying Israel will continue to target Hamas wherever they are located in the world. Netanyahu, he said, had “put them on notice”.

    Despite Trump’s promise that Israel would not conduct another attack on Qatari soil, Leiter appeared to suggest such a strike remained on the table.

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

Israel’s behaviour creating ‘a great crisis for international system’

    As we’ve been reporting, Qatar has announced the formation of a legal team to determine how to respond to Israel’s strike.

    While they could pursue a civil case in the UN’s International Court of Justice or a criminal case at the International Criminal Court, accountability will be an uphill battle, said Wadie Said, a professor of law at the University of Colorado.

    “I think one of the main criticisms you’ve seen dealing with the Israeli state and how it behaves in the region – towards the Palestinians, towards its neighbouring countries, and now extending, as we’ve seen, into countries like Iran and now Qatar – it doesn’t pay a lot of attention to what international law has to say,” he told Al Jazeera.

    “That’s created a great crisis for the international system.”