The Houthis have fired a missile at Israel in response to the unprecedented bombing of a building in Qatar that killed at least five members of Hamas . The Israeli military said its defence systems had intercepted the strike that came from Yemen-based group this evening. It comes as footage filmed in Doha today showed a large explosion and thick black smoke billowing from a building as Israel carried out airstrikes in the Qatari capital.

The IDF said that it and the Israel Security Agency, Shin Bet, had ‘conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership’ of Hamas, while Doha condemned the ‘cowardly’ attack, described as a ‘flagrant violation to all international law’. Hours after the attack, Benjamin Netanyahu urged Gazans to accept Donald Trump’s peace plan, saying it would bring an immediate end to the war. He also warned that terrorist leaders were no longer immune anywhere – as he said Israel had delivered ‘great blows to axis of evil’.

Netanyahu said in a televised address: ‘The days are over when terror leaders can enjoy immunity of any kind…I won’t allow that kind of immunity to exist.’ ‘We are in the midst of a campaign to defeat Hamas and release all of the hostages. We have delivered great blows to all parts of the axis of evil,’ Netanyahu added. Hamas said five of its members, including the son of leader Khalil Al-Hayya, were killed in the attack. A member of the Qatari security services also died.

Sir Keir Starmer this afternoon condemned the strikes, saying they risk further destabilising the region. The UK Prime Minister posted on X: ‘I condemn Israel’s strikes on Doha, which violate Qatar’s sovereignty and risk further escalation across the region. ‘The priority must be an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, and a huge surge in aid into Gaza. This is the only solution towards long-lasting peace.’

It comes as a senior Israeli official told Israeli media the attack was aimed at top Hamas leaders including al-Hayya, its Gaza chief. A Hamas source said that the Israeli strikes targeted officials during a meeting to discuss Donald Trump ‘s ceasefire proposals. Negotiators were reportedly hit, and explosions rocked a Hamas compound, but it is believed all of the group’s leadership survived.

Contradictory reports quickly began to emerge as foreign channels reported that Khalil al-Hayya, the leader of Hamas, and Khaled Mashal, the head of the external politburo in Qatar, were killed in the attack. Doha immediately condemned the ‘cowardly’ strikes, described as a ‘flagrant violation to all international law’. Iran joined in denouncing the ‘gross violation of all international rules and regulations’. A White House official told the BBC that the Trump administration was ‘notified’ about the attack in Qatar, a formal U.S. partner and major non-NATO ally, before it happened. The US’ largest military base in the Middle East, Al Udeid, is in Qatar.

Hamas members had reportedly met in the city to discuss Trump’s ceasefire proposals at the time of the airstrikes. A Hamas official in Gaza told the AFP news agency that ‘the Hamas negotiating delegation was targeted during its meeting in Doha, while discussing (US) President (Donald) Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip’. A complex on Wadi Rawdan Street, north of central Doha, was heavily damaged in the attack, according to the BBC’s geolocation and images from the scene. A senior Israeli official told Israeli outlet Channel 12 that Khaled Mashal was among the leaders in attendance targeted.

The Saudi Al Arabiya network reported that Mashal was among those killed, alongside at least two other senior officials. Hamas denied the claims. A source told Al Jazeera that all members attending the meeting survived the ‘assassination attempt’. Two Hamas sources also told Reuters the group’s ceasefire negotiation delegation in Doha survived the attack. Saudi channels had also reported that senior Hamas figures including Khalil al-Hayya, Zaher Jabarin and Nizar Awadallah had been killed – against Hamas’ line. The strikes were condemned by French president Emmanuel Macron, who branded them as unacceptable.

He wrote on X: ‘Today’s Israeli strikes on Qatar are unacceptable, whatever the reason. I express my solidarity with Qatar and its Emir, Sheikh Tamim Al Thani. ‘Under no circumstances should the war spread throughout the region.’ The Israeli military named the operation targeting the meeting ‘Summit of Fire’. Qatar has long played a role in trying to mediate ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas. Hamas’ most senior leader, al-Hayya, left the city of Doha when Qatar suspended its mediation efforts late last year. al-Hayya is based in Qatar and has headed Hamas negotiators in indirect Gaza truce talks with Israel.

Hayya has been widely seen as the group’s most influential figure abroad since Ismail Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Iran in July 2024. He is part of a five-man leadership council that has led Hamas since Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israel last October in Gaza. Regarded as having good ties with Iran, a vital source of arms and finance for Hamas, he has been closely involved in the group’s efforts to broker several truces with Israel, playing a key role in ending a 2014 conflict and again in attempts to secure an end to the current Gaza war. Mashal, meanwhile, has been a central figure at the top of Hamas since the late 1990s, though he has worked mostly from the relative safety of exile as Israel plotted to assassinate other prominent Hamas figures based in the Gaza Strip.

He is the head of the group’s ‘external’ politburo based in Qatar. The U.S. embassy in Qatar issued a ‘shelter-in-place order’ for their facilities, asking citizens to shelter where they are and monitor updates. Israeli media reported that Donald Trump gave his blessing to the airstrikes, two days after issuing a ‘last warning’ to Hamas. But the Israeli prime minister’s office insisted Israel conducted unilateral action in Qatar. ‘Today’s action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation,’ Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a social media post.

‘Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.’ It wasn’t immediately clear how the attack was carried out, though Israeli military spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee referred to Israel’s air force carrying out the strike. ‘These were air strikes,’ a military official told AFP. Tuesday’s strikes came shortly after Hamas claimed responsibility for a gun attack in Jerusalem that killed six people on Monday . Netanyahu and his defence minister issued a joint statement linking the strikes to the East Jerusalem shooting.

‘The prime minister and defense minister believed the operation was completely justified in light of the fact that this Hamas leadership initiated and organized the October 7 massacre, and has not ceased to launch murderous actions against the State of Israel and its citizens since then,’ the statement read. The strikes also come less than two weeks after Israeli armed forces chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir vowed to target the group’s leaders based abroad. ‘Most of Hamas’s leadership is abroad, and we will reach them as well,’ Zamir said on August 31. Hamas and Israel have held multiple rounds of indirect ceasefire negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States throughout the nearly two-year Gaza war.

Despite two temporary truces, the talks have failed to bring a lasting end to the war. Hamas said Sunday it was ready to ‘immediately sit at the negotiating table’ following what it described as ‘some ideas from the American side aimed at reaching a ceasefire agreement’. US President Donald Trump said Sunday he was issuing a ‘last warning’ to Hamas, insisting it accept a deal to release the hostages seized during the October 2023 attack which sparked the war. The UN joined in denouncing the attack, warning that upending the negotiation process threatened to collapse ongoing ceasefire talks.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said Israel’s strikes were a ‘flagrant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.’ He said Qatar has been playing a very positive role to try and achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages held by Hamas. ‘All parties must work towards achieving a permanent ceasefire, not destroying it,’ Guterres told reporters. Israel hostages forum later said it was concerned for Gaza captives after the Doha strikes. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned the strikes, also warning they threatened regional security and stability.

‘His excellency stated that the brutal Israeli attack on Qatar constitutes a blatant violation of international law and an escalation that threatens regional security and stability,’ Abbas’s office said in a statement reported by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa. Qatar said it ‘will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty’. Saudi Arabia, whose tentative overtures towards normalisation of relations with Israel has been upended by the war in Gaza, said: ‘The Kingdom affirms its full solidarity and support for Qatar, placing all its capabilities at its disposal to assist in any measures it may take, while warning of the grave consequences of the Israeli occupation’s persistent criminal assaults and its blatant violations of the principles of international law and all international norms.’

The attack came as Israel stepped up a deadly assault on Gaza City, the Palestinian territory’s largest urban centre. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a video statement addressing residents of the city: ‘I say to the residents: you have been warned, leave now! ‘All of this is just a prelude, just the opening, to the main intensified operation – the ground manoeuvre of our forces, who are now organising and assembling to enter Gaza City,’ he said.