Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili saw the aftermath of an Israeli attack on one of the tallest residential towers in Gaza City. The Israeli military has levelled at least 50 multi-storey buildings in recent weeks.
Published On 16 Sep 202516 Sep 2025
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UKRAINIAN children abducted during the war are forced to make military equipment used against their homeland, chilling research reveals.
Thousands of innocent youngsters shipped to more than 200 sinister camps across Russia are being subjected to brainwashing and being used as pawns by deranged Vladimir Putin.
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Sickenlingly, satelitte images shows children being used as slave labour to assemble drones and other supplies fuelling the tyrant’s war machine in Ukraine.
Military training has been observed at around 40 of the sites holding children as young as eight, including ceremonial parades and drills, and combat training.
Officials told The Sun it shows Kremlin stooges are teaching children to fight against their home, blasting their use as a “weapons” against Ukraine and beyond.
Daria Herasymchuck, advisor and commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights and Rehabilitation, told The Sun: “For those of us who have observed Putin’s actions up close for more than a decade, we are well accustomed to their evasion, distortion and calculated indifference.
“We are appalled by the large-scale, logistical and operational capacity Russia is operating in – using children, who are always the most vulnerable victims in armed conflicts, in such a way, is deliberately cruel.”
Since megalomaniac Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, thousands of Ukrainian children have been kidnapped and sent to at least 210 facilities inside Russia and occupied territory.
These sites range from summer camps and sanatoriums to a military base, and, in one case, a monastery, according to research by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).
Russia is known to have engaged in the deportation, re-education, militarisation and forced adopting of Ukrainian children since at least 2014 from the occupied territories of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk.
But since Putin’s ordered his troops in more than three years ago, researchers say these barbaric efforts have siginificantly expanded.
The HRL has used satellite imagery and open source materials to identify and track Ukrainian children snatched during the war.
Its horrifying report, Ukraine’s Stolen Children: Inside Russia’s Network of Re-education and Militarization, reveals the staggering efforts Moscow goes to to brainwash these youngsters.
Children have been rounded up and moved to at least eight different location types.
These are cadet schools, a military base, medical facilities, a religious site, secondary schools and universities, a hotel, family support centers and orphanages, and camps and sanatoriums.
At least two new cadet schools have been constructed, and at least 49 of the 210 locations have been expanded since the start of the war.
Children are forced to develop “fire and naval training skills” at some sites as part of a warped militarisation campaign.
They are required to participate in “shooting competitions and grenade throwing competitions” as well as receive “tactical medicince, drone control and tactics” training.
In one instance, youngsters from Donetsk oblast received “airborne training” at a military base, the HRL’s report – shared with United
Nations Security Council- reveals.
Children have also been used to help produced military equipment for Russia’s armed forces, including drones.
Herasymchuck, of Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative, told The Sun: “The report shows Russia is prepared to use Ukraine’s own children as a ‘weapon’ against Ukraine, and Europe more broadly.
“They are being trained to fight against their own homeland.
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“This is all part of Russia’s long-term campaign to erase the Ukrainian identity – central to this is the Russification and militarisation of Ukrainian children as the report outlines.”
Some youngsters have been held temporarily before returning home – while others have been held indefinitely.
As part of Putin’s callous regime to indoctrinate these children, many have been pushed into a network of so-called family centres.
Others have been pushed into Russia’s programme of coerced fostering and adoption – seeing them eventually placed within a Russian family.
For those who return home, Ukraine authorities have been told of the drastic work that has to be done to undo the damage.
Herasymchuck said: “Rehabilitation for children who return from deportation is one of the most sensitive and complex aspects of our work.
“These children have experienced not only physical displacement but also deep psychological trauma.
“When kids return, children often feel confused, disconnected, or afraid.
“These children have been taught not to resist. That is deeply alarming. Some carry guilt or shame. Others return with hostility or denial of their own identity.
“This is why our work does not end with bringing children home.
Exclusive by Katie Davis, Chief Foreign Reporter (Digital)
RUSSIA is using abducted and brainwashed children as “weapons”, one of Zelensky’s staff battling to rescue Ukraine’s kidnapped kids warned.
Daria Zarivna told The Sun earlier this year that no peace deal will be brokered until Moscow agrees to return thousands of kidnapped youngsters home.
She warned Vladimir Putin‘s thugs are indoctrinating these youngsters and those living in Ukrainian territory under Russian control.
Bring Kids Back Ukraine operations director Daria said Moscow will push them into joining Russia’s army to use them as a “weapon” against Europe in the future.
Since Putin illegally invaded Ukraine three years ago, tens of thousands of children have been kidnapped and taken into Russia.
Kremlin stooges then disturbingly try to rid the youngsters of their Ukrainian heritage and brainwash them into becoming Russian citizens.
Sinister camps have been set up in Russia where children are sent before having their official documents altered and being placed in Russian families.
Often the children are told that their loved ones have abandoned them and that they are now part of the Russian Federation.
Mariana Betsa, Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, told The Sun how some children have been abused and suffered sexual violence.
She said: “It’s not just a statistic, 20,000. It’s a life behind every person behind every statistic.
“We have so many families who were separated. We have so many children who were abducted.
“We need to return every single child.”
Presidential advisor Daria meanwhile warned Russia will use the children as a “weapon” against not only Ukraine, but the rest of Europe.
She said: “We are working on keeping this matter in the spotlight and we think that it is extremely important that it be a part of these talks because the Ukrainian children which Russia keeps under its control
“It’s a threat to global security, to Ukraine’s security.
“There are 1.6 million Ukrainian children currently staying in the temporarily occupied territories under the control of Russia.
“They’ve been indoctrinated, they’ve been militarised.”
“Under the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, Ukraine has built a reintegration system that provides each child with a tailored protection and recovery plan.
“Based on children’s needs, they receive medical care, psychological support, legal aid, safe housing, and access to education.”
The Sun previously spoke to one teenager who fell victim to Putin’s evil scheme.
Nastya, then 15, was abducted from Kherson Oblast when it was seized by Putin’s fighters at the beginning of the war in March 2022.
The terrified teenager was placed with a woman who also had ten other children in her care.
She told how she was abused and beat her until she was sent back to the police station where she had originally been held.
Nastya was then enrolled in a college, where she said she was routinely humiliated by soldiers who told her: “You are nothing.”
Eventually, Nastya was able to find a phone and make a call to her mother, who tracked down volunteers in Ukraine to help get her home.
In March 2023, arrest warrants for Putin and his twisted children’s commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova were issued by the International Criminal Court.
Russia attempted to denounce the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable”.
Lvova-Belova has attempted to portray the forced deportation of Ukrainian children as a Russian rescue mission since being appointed Putin’s children’s commissioner in 2021.
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Qatar’s prime minister pledged to continue its efforts to stop Israel’s war on Gaza, ahead of an emergency international summit to discuss a joint response after the Israeli attack in the Qatari capital Doha.
Published On 15 Sep 202515 Sep 2025
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Leaders from across the region are gathering in the Qatari capital to discuss a formal response to Israel’s strikes on Doha last week, which it said targeted Hamas leadership and reverberated through the Middle East and beyond.
Israel launched the missiles as Hamas members gathered in their Doha office to discuss a deal proposed by United States President Donald Trump to end Israel’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza.
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The attack came hours after Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Israel had accepted the Trump proposal, which would release all 48 captives held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and a ceasefire.
Israel killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security official in the attack, although it did not kill the Hamas leadership it said it was targeting.
The United Nations Security Council unanimously condemned the attack on Thursday.
Qatar has invited leaders from Arab and Islamic countries for meetings that will culminate in the emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that “the summit will discuss a draft resolution on the Israeli attack” that signifies another instance of “state terrorism practised by Israel”.
A meeting of foreign ministers on Sunday will work on the draft, which is expected to add to the international chorus of condemnation for the Israeli attack.
Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, who met Trump in New York on Friday, said Qatar will pursue a collective response to the attack, which has put the entire region at risk.
Qatar has long had a mediation role, working to end Israel’s war on Gaza and generate regional unity.
In the meetings on Sunday and Monday, it will leverage pro-Palestinian sentiment and opposition to Israel’s attacks that have been expressed across the region.
Leaders from the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the 22-member Arab League will attend.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian is confirmed to attend, as are Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
On Saturday, Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani issued what he called a “warning to Islamic governments” and said they must “form a ‘joint operations room’ against the madness” of Israel instead of resorting to mere statements.
The full list of dignitaries in attendance on Monday is yet to be confirmed.
At the summit, a strongly worded statement against Israel is guaranteed.
The leaders will discuss potential ways they could take action to address Israeli aggression across the region.
Israel has also bombed Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen as its genocidal war on Gaza and military raids on the occupied West Bank continue relentlessly.
The sense of security enjoyed by Qatar and neighbouring states has been shattered, which could prompt them to seek new security or defence arrangements with the US that go beyond buying arms.
There are political considerations at play, however, especially with Washington still offering ironclad support to Israel despite growing international frustration.
As ministers and leaders arrived in Doha on Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio travelled to Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders. Among other things, they are likely to discuss plans to annex large parts of the West Bank.
That plan has been described by the United Arab Emirates, a member of the US-sponsored Abraham Accords to normalise ties with Israel, as a “red line” that would undermine the agreement.
Saudi Arabia and other regional states being eyed by Israel and the US as future members of the Accords are seen by analysts to be the furthest they have been for years from normalising relations with Israel.
Among the tools that states have at their disposal to respond to rogue aggression are acts like downgrading diplomatic ties.
Arab states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE also have vast financial capabilities at their disposal as leverage, as well as large sovereign wealth funds with international investments that could impose curbs on Israel, including trade limitations.
Qatar has said part of its response will be legal, including through pursuing Israeli violations of international law.
Israeli forces bombed a residential building causing fires to spread in an intense night of Israeli strikes on Gaza City. The army says its forces are “increasing the pace of attacks” and told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move south.
Published On 13 Sep 202513 Sep 2025
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Romania has scrambled fighter jets after a drone breached the country’s airspace during a Russian attack on neighbouring Ukraine, its Ministry of National Defence said, as Kyiv accused Moscow of expanding its war.
The Romanian move on Saturday came as Poland also deployed aircraft and closed an airport in the eastern city of Lublin over the threat of a drone attack.
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Ukraine’s European Union neighbours have been on guard since Poland shot down Russian drones in its airspace earlier this week, with the backing of aircraft from its NATO allies.
Romania’s Defence Ministry said it detected the drone incursion late on Saturday, and scrambled two F-16 fighter jets as well as two Eurofighters – part of German air policing missions in Romania – while also warning citizens to take cover.
It said the jets followed the drone until “it disappeared from the radar” near the Romanian village of Chilia Veche.
Minister of National Defence Ionut Mosteanu said the F-16 pilots came close to taking down the drone before it left the country’s airspace, adding that helicopters would survey the area near the border to look for potential drone parts.
“But all information at this moment indicates the drone exited airspace to Ukraine,” he told the private television station Antena 3.
Romania, an EU and NATO state which shares a 650km (400-mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone fragments fall onto its territory repeatedly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the social media platform X that data showed the drone breached about 10km (6 miles) into Romanian territory and operated in NATO airspace for about 50 minutes.
He alleged that the Russian military knows exactly where its drones are headed and how long they can operate in the air.
“It is an obvious expansion of the war by Russia – and this is exactly how they act,” Zelenskyy said.
“Sanctions against Russia are needed. Tariffs against Russian trade are needed. Collective defence is needed.”
Sweden also condemned the drone incursion in Romania.
Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard wrote on X that the breach was “another unacceptable violation of NATO airspace”.
“Sweden stands in full solidarity with Romania as a NATO Ally and EU Member State. We are always ready to contribute further to the deterrence and defence of the Alliance.”
NATO had announced plans to beef up the defence of Europe’s eastern flank on Friday, after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace, the first known shots fired by a member of the Western alliance during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
While Russia denies targeting Poland, several European countries, including France, Germany and Sweden, have stepped up their support for defending Polish airspace in response.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, expressed concern at the Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace, but said that it remained unclear if it was a deliberate act by Russia.
“We think it’s an unacceptable and unfortunate and dangerous development,” Rubio told reporters before departing on a trip to Israel and the United Kingdom.
“No doubt about it: the drones were intentionally launched. The question is whether the drones were targeted to go into Poland specifically.”
Rubio said that if the drones were targeted at Poland, “if the evidence leads us there, then obviously that’ll be a highly escalatory move”.
“There are a number of other possibilities as well, but I think we’d like to have all the facts and consult with our allies before we make specific determinations,” he added.
The comments echo suggestions by US President Donald Trump that the Russian incursions into Polish airspace were a mistake.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, however, has dismissed that.
“We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it,” Tusk said on X on Friday.
Trump, meanwhile, said on Saturday that he was ready to impose major sanctions on Russia – just as soon as all NATO nations did the same thing and stopped buying Russian oil.
“I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Trump has repeatedly threatened sanctions against Russia without following through.
Less than 24 hours after a bullet whizzed across a Utah college campus and claimed the life of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, polarizing figures from across the political spectrum swiftly canceled public events.
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) decided to postpone a North Carolina stop on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour this weekend, while Trump allies Stephen K. Bannon and Rudolph W. Giuliani reportedly nixed plans for a New York gathering due to “increased security concerns.”
Popular leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who was set to debate Kirk at Dartmouth College later this month, told Politico he would “wait for the temperature to lower” before holding in-person events again.
Kirk’s assassination comes amid a spate of attacks on high-profile political figures — including two assassination attempts on President Trump — that security experts say will change the way large-scale political events are held, with open-air venues increasingly seen as risky.
“In the current threat environment, outdoor venues for political events should be avoided at all costs,” said Art Acevedo, the former head of the Houston and Miami police departments.
Even with a security apparatus as powerful as the U.S. Secret Service, experts say it is incredibly difficult to establish a firm perimeter at outdoor rallies with a large number of attendees. The gunman who opened fire on Trump in Butler, Pa., during the 2024 presidential campaign did so from more than 400 feet away. Kirk was shot from a distance of more than 400 feet with a powerful bolt-action rifle.
The suspected gunman, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested Friday morning, authorities said. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said ammunition recovered and linked to the shooting had anti-fascist engravings on it.
A PBS/Marist Poll conducted last year found that 1 in 5 Americans believe violent acts would be justified to “get the country back on track.”
Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman was killed alongside her husband at their Minnesota home in June by a gunman allegedly motivated by conservative politics. In April, police arrested a man who allegedly tried to set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence while the Democrat slept inside with his family.
Politicians aren’t the only ones being targeted. The killing in December in Manhattan of a healthcare industry executive turned suspected gunman Luigi Mangione into an object of public fascination, with some applauding the act of vigilantism.
With Americans increasingly viewing their political foes as enemy combatants, researchers who study extremist violence and event security professionals say Kirk’s killing on Wednesday could mark a turning point in how well-known individuals protect themselves.
“The bottom line is, for public political and other figures, it is increasingly difficult to protect them anywhere, but even more so in an outdoor environment because it’s getting harder to screen people and devices in those open spaces,” said Brian Levin, a former New York City police officer and professor emeritus at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.
Kirk was being protected by roughly a half-dozen Utah Valley University police officers and a handful of private security guards Wednesday, according to campus security officials. While that kind of presence might deter a close-quarters threat, snipers and other assailants with long-range capabilities would not be affected.
Typically, security professionals seek to create three “rings of protection” around the focus of a public event, according to Kent Moyer, founder of World Protection Group, an international security firm.
The inner ring often consists of barriers and security personnel meant to separate Kirk from the crowd immediately in front of him, not someone hundreds of yards away. In the middle ring, security guards positioned farther from the focus of the event monitor the temperature of the crowd and try to clock individuals acting strangely or becoming aggressive. An outer ring would serve to search bags and screen individuals before they enter the event.
It did not appear there was any screening of attendees at the event where Kirk was killed, and it is legal to openly carry firearms on a college campus in Utah.
Levin said he expects to see drones deployed at similar events in the future, an assessment seconded by Acevedo.
“If you’re going to do an outdoor event you better make sure you have some kind of surveillance of rooftops,” Levin said.
When doing risk assessments, Levin said, police and security professionals need to be cognizant that politicians themselves are no longer the sole targets for political violence.
What Levin called “idiosyncratic actors” are increasingly likely to lash out at those connected to political and policy positions they find unjust. While Kirk was not a politician himself, he was a beloved figure in Trump’s orbit, and his activist group, Turning Point USA, has often been credited with driving younger voters to support the president.
“It’s not just elected officials. It’s pundits, it includes corporate people, people involved in policy and education,” said Levin.
But a heavy security detail doesn’t come cheap.
While elected officials are guarded by a range of federal and state law enforcement agencies, political influencers like Kirk must rely on their own vendors as well as security personnel hired by the venues where they speak.
Levin warned that law enforcement assigned to political events should be on high alert for retaliatory attacks in the near future, given the “dehumanizing” rhetoric some have taken up in the wake of Kirk’s killing.
Specifically, he pointed to Trump’s Oval Office remarks late Wednesday blaming Kirk’s death on “the radical left,” despite the fact that Kirk’s killer had not been identified at that time and federal law enforcement officials had not disclosed a motive in the shooting.
Trump also rattled off a number of attacks on Republicans during his remarks, while making no mention of Hortman’s slaying, the 2022 attack on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — all violent incidents carried out by people who espoused right-wing political values.
“More and more people across the ideological spectrum, though more concentrated on the far hard right, think violence is justified to achieve political outcomes,” Levin said.
Moscow said its air defenses shot down 221 Ukrainian drones targeting a wide swathe of eastern Russia overnight, from the regions bordering Ukraine to Baltic Sea oil terminals in its Leningrad region. Seven people were injured. Photo by Igor Tkachenko/EPA
Sept. 12 (UPI) — Russia said Friday that it shot down hundreds of Ukrainian drones overnight, many of them targeting facilities of the multinational Russian oil company, Lukoil, southwest of Moscow, according to the defense ministry.
More than half of the 221 UAVs were brought down over the regions of Smolensk and Bryansk, where five civilians and two military personnel were injured after a bus was struck, while nine got through to the Moscow area before being destroyed.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said emergency services were attending a location hit by falling debris from downed drones but gave no details of where or the extent of the damage. Russian social media accounts reported blasts in Mozhaysk and Dedovsk in the western suburbs of the capital.
As many as 30 others were intercepted in the Leningrad region, temporarily closing St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport and setting ablaze a vessel at Russia’s largest oil terminal northwest of the city at Primorsk on the Baltic Sea.
Secret Service of Ukraine sources told The Kyiv Independent that the agency was responsible for the Leningrad strikes, which also successfully targeted three pumping stations serving the Ust-Luga oil terminal 80 miles southwest of St. Petersburg, as part of what was believed to be one of the largest attacks on the region since the start of the war in 2022.
Drones were also downed over Oryol, Kaluga, Novgorod, Belgorod, Tver, Pskov, Tula and Kursk — but without any further casualties, authorities said.
Ukraine stepped up its targeting of Russia’s energy infrastructure in August, hitting more than a dozen refineries and knocking out a fifth of Russia’s oil processing capacity during the month, according to the White House.
Russia has tried to downplay the disruption, with state-run media outlets claiming it was caused by “unscheduled repairs.”
Ukraine has modified its drone strategy from trying to attack Moscow and military facilities on Russian soil to higher-profile targets in an effort to make the Russian people more cognizant of the war.
At least 31 Ukrainian drones were downed early Tuesday as they closed in on the Black Sea resort of Sochi, hours after President Vladimir Putin was in the city for a virtual meeting with other world leaders belonging to the so-called BRICS grouping of economic powers.
The attack killed one person, damaged six homes and forced authorities to close the city’s international airport.
Such determination has been a constant throughout Wissa’s career.
He was playing in front of crowds of fewer than 3,000 supporters away at Chambly in the French second division back in 2019.
Now he in line to feature against Barcelona in the Champions League next week after completing a protracted £55m move from Brentford to Newcastle United.
His rise has not necessarily come as a shock to Pierre-Yves Hamel, who played alongside Wissa at Lorient.
“After the attack, he never complained,” he said. “He immediately wanted to move forward and to blossom today is a just reward for his efforts.
“Once Yoane has an idea in mind, he will do his utmost to make it happen – no matter how long it takes.”
Those words now carry added meaning.
Wissa was so set on joining Newcastle that he removed all association with Brentford from his Instagram account a few weeks ago.
In a statement last month, Wissa urged Brentford to “keep their word” to let him leave and accused the club of “unduly standing in my way”.
Parallels were drawn with another striker looking to leave their club – Wissa, like Alexander Isak, did not feature in any of his team’s opening three games of the season.
And just as Newcastle fans were upset with the manner in which Isak pushed to join Liverpool, following his own explosive social media post, Brentford supporters were dismayed with Wissa’s conduct as he looked to force a move through to St James’ Park.
Ian Westbrook, who is the Brentford fan writer with BBC Sport, stressed supporters are “not vindictive” towards those who “leave in the right way” because they know that their side “sell players to bigger clubs at the right time”.
The season-ticket holder suggested former players Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard and ex-manager Thomas Frank will all receive good receptions as a result when they return to Gtech Community Stadium following their summer moves.
But it will be different for Wissa.
“His legacy has been soured,” he said. “There’s not many players who have done this to Brentford.”
COPS are frantically searching for a man after a 12-year-old girl, walking with her mother, was reportedly sexually assaulted twice on a train.
The despicable crime is alleged to have occurred on a train between Birmingham and Hereford on Saturday, August 16.
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As the young girl was walking to the toilets with her mother the man is said to have sexually assaulted her.
He then waited outside the toilets and sexually assaulted her again as she left, cops said.
The British Transport Police have now released an image of a man they would like to speak to in connection with the incident.
Cops said the man may have valuable information that could help their investigation into the horrific crime.
Detective Sergeant Matthew Grieve said: “This is a deeply distressing incident which has shocked and impacted the family.
“We would like to speak to the man pictured, as we believe he may have valuable information that would help our investigation.”
Anyone who recognises the man or has info about the harrowing incident is asked to contact BTP as a matter of urgency.
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Funeral services have been held for the six people killed in an Israeli strike targeting Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital Doha, as Arab leaders continue to visit the Gulf nation to express solidarity.
One coffin bearing a Qatari flag and five others bearing Palestinian flags were brought to Doha’s Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mosque, live footage from Qatar television showed on Thursday.
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“The mood has been sombre since the death toll from Israel’s failed assassination attempt against the leadership of Hamas in Doha was announced earlier this week,” Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javed reported.
“We heard the Qatari prime minister giving special prayers for him at the funeral ceremony,” he added.
The Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was also present, standing in the front row, “signalling that Qatar stands by its people, especially with those who gave their lives in this unprecedented attack on a Gulf Cooperation Council country”, Bin Javed said, reporting from the Qatari capital.
The Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday as they were meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by US President Donald Trump.
At least six people were killed in the attack, including five low-ranking Hamas members. However, the group said its leadership survived the assassination bid.
Qatari Lance Corporal Badr Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari was also among the killed.
In the aftermath of the Doha attack, US President Donald Trump said he felt “very badly” about the location of the attacks and later told reporters he was “not thrilled” by Israel’s actions.
Former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy says Israel’s attack against a Hamas delegation in Qatar sends a message not just to the Palestinian group, but to the region.
“Either get on board with our project of regional hegemony, which includes the displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, or we dare you because we have America on our side and we are unassailable militarily,” Levy said.
A slew of Arab and Muslim leaders descended on Doha since Israel’s unprecedented attack, including United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who met the emir on Wednesday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also arrived in the Qatari capital to express his country’s show of support for the tiny Gulf nation. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was expected in Doha on Thursday.
The Qatari Emir also received a verbal message of solidarity from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Thursday, conveyed by his Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty during a meeting in Doha.
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Abdelatty’s visit was aimed at expressing the country’s “full solidarity” with Qatar and “to discuss ways to deal with the dangerous Israeli escalation and coordinate positions” with senior Qatari officials.
Qatar will convene an emergency Arab-Islamic summit to discuss Israel’s attack, according to the state news agency QNA, a possible hint of what shape a collective regional response would take.
The summit will take place in Doha on Sunday and Monday.
The announcement came as the United Nations Security Council opened an emergency session on Thursday to discuss the attack, which was delayed a day to allow the Qatari prime minister to attend the meeting.
Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum, in a televised statement on Thursday, said the Israeli attempt to assassinate Hamas’s negotiating delegation in Doha and continued threats to target the movement’s leadership abroad showed Israel’s “failure to achieve its goals” after 23 months of genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 64,000 Palestinians.
In the Palestinian group’s first address since Tuesday’s attack, Barhoum said that the group will keep fighting despite the assassination attempt.
“The Israeli attack cannot dent our resolve by targeting our leaders,” the Hamas spokesperson said. “The crime did not target the negotiating delegation, but rather the entire negotiation process.”
The attack on Tuesday was the first such attack by Israel on Qatar, which has been a key mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas. Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has dubbed Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders “state terrorism”.
“There is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” he told US media outlet CNN on Wednesday, adding that “the entire Gulf region is at risk”.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed undeterred, threatening further attacks on Qatar.
“I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday.
Israel has assassinated many of Hamas’s top military and political leaders in the last two years, such as top political leader Yahya Sinwar; military commander Mohammed Deif, one of the founders of the Qassam Brigades in the 1990s; and political chief Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the Israeli prime minister’s comments, calling them a “shameful attempt … to justify the cowardly attack that targeted Qatari territory, as well as the explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty”.
On Thursday, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs “condemned and denounced” Netanyahu’s comments, calling them “hostile”.
“Any aggression against a GCC member state constitutes an attack on the collective Gulf security framework,” the ministry said, stressing that “the continuation of such provocative and hostile rhetoric undermines prospects for stability and pushes the region towards extremely dangerous trajectories”.
Mourners gathered in Qatar’s capital Doha to pray for six victims of Israel’s attack, including a 22-year-old policeman. The strike has been described as unprecedented for the Gulf.
Published On 11 Sep 202511 Sep 2025
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Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has said that there must be a “collective response” to Israel’s attack on the Qatari capital Doha, as Arab leaders rushed to the tiny Gulf nation to express solidarity.
“There is a response that will happen from the region. This response is currently under consultation and discussion with other partners in the region,” he told US media outlet CNN on Wednesday, adding that “the entire Gulf region is at risk”.
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“We are hoping for something meaningful that deters Israel from continuing this bullying,” Sheikh Mohammed added, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of leading the region into “chaos”.
“We understand some sort of regional meeting will be held here in Qatar. We know that the countries have pulled together their own legal team. They are looking at all legal avenues to have Netanyahu tried for breaking international law,” Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said.
“So yeah, the pressure is definitely mounting on Israel, not only from Qatar, but obviously on a regional and a wider international level. And that’s what I think he’s obviously trying to do in giving these very forceful statements to the US network, CNN.”
The Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday as they were meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal put forth by US President Donald Trump. At least seven people were killed in the attack, but Hamas said its leadership survived the assassination bid. Qatar says two of its security officers were killed in the attack that has drawn global condemnation.
On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron condemned Israel’s attack in a phone call with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “These strikes are unacceptable. I condemn them. I reaffirmed France’s commitment to the sovereignty and security of Qatar,” he posted on X.
The attack was part of a wider wave of Israeli strikes extending beyond its immediate borders, and marked the sixth country attacked in just 72 hours and the seventh since the start of this year. On Wednesday, Israel killed 35 people in an attack on Yemen.
The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group said on Wednesday that Israel’s strike on Qatar is a warning to oil-rich Gulf countries that they would not be spared in the future if armed groups in the region are defeated.
“We are on the side of Qatar that was subjected to an aggression and we also stand with the Palestinian resistance,” Naim Kassem said. He added that the Israeli strike is part of its attempts to create a “Greater Israel” in large parts of the Middle East.
The “Greater Israel” concept supported by ultranationalist Israelis is understood to refer to an expansionist vision that lays claim to the occupied West Bank, Gaza, parts of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Jordan.
Israel has been accused of committing genocide in Gaza by numerous rights groups, but that has not stopped it from its brutal campaign of bombardment. On Wednesday, Israeli attacks across Gaza killed at least 72 people, taking the total number of Palestinians killed since October 2023 to more than 64,656. Israel has intensified its assault to capture Gaza City – home to more than one million Palestinians.
Sheikh Mohammed, the Qatari prime minister, also said that the Israeli strike was aimed at undermining “any chance of peace” in Gaza.
“Everything about the meeting is very well known to the Israelis and the Americans. It’s not something that we are hiding,” he said of the presence of Hamas officials in Qatar.
“I think that what [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu did yesterday – he just killed any hope for those [Israeli] hostages,” Sheikh Mohammed said about the 20 captives believed to be still alive in Gaza.
However, Netanyahu appears unfazed by the criticism from global leaders, including the UN secretary-general.
On Wednesday, the Israeli prime minister threatened further attacks on Qatar. “I say to Qatar and all nations who harbour terrorists, you either expel them or you bring them to justice. Because if you don’t, we will,” Netanyahu said.
Qatar has condemned Netanyahu’s “reckless” comments regarding Qatar’s hosting of the Hamas office. “Netanyahu is fully aware that the hosting of the Hamas office took place within the framework of Qatar’s mediation efforts requested by the United States and Israel,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
It also called out “the shameful attempt therein to justify the cowardly attack that targeted Qatari territory, as well as the explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty”.
Netanyahu’s threats came despite the US President Donald Trump on Tuesday saying no further attacks would happen on Qatari soil.
The attack on Tuesday was the first such attack by Israel on Qatar, which has been a key mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and hosts the region’s largest United States military base, Al Udeid airbase, which hosts US troops.
The Qatari prime minister, who is also the foreign minister of the Gulf nation, has dubbed Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday “state terrorism”.
“I have no words to express how enraged we are from such an action … we are betrayed,” he said in the interview with the cable network.
Netanyahu “needs to be brought to justice. He’s the one who’s wanted at the International Criminal Court. He broke every international law,” Sheikh Mohammed said, referring to the arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister for war crimes.
Meanwhile, Gulf leaders have visited Doha to rally around Qatar, with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan calling the Israeli action “criminal” and a threat to regional stability.
In a meeting on Wednesday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha, Sheikh Al Nahyan reaffirmed his country’s “resolute solidarity with Qatar and its steadfast support for all measures taken to safeguard its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the safety of its people”, according to the UAE state media outlet WAM.
“He [Sheikh Al Nahyan] stressed that the criminal attack constituted a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and of all international laws and norms, warning that such actions threaten the region’s security, stability, and prospects for peace,” WAM added.
The crown princes of Kuwait and Jordan also travelled to Doha on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, will arrive in Doha on Thursday.
“We will stand with the State of Qatar in all measures it takes, without limits, and we will harness all our capabilities for that,” Prince Mohammed said in an address to the Shura Council on Wednesday.
“We reject and condemn the attacks of the Israeli occupation in the region, the latest of which was the brutal aggression against the State of Qatar,” the crown prince added.
“This requires Arab, Islamic, and international action to confront this aggression and to take international measures to stop the occupation authority and deter it from its criminal practices aimed at destabilising the region’s security and stability.”
In a brief interview with reporters on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he was “not thrilled” about Israel’s strike.
“This was a decision made by [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Still, it remains unclear whether the Trump administration had been caught off guard, whether the US had indicated even tacit approval for such a strike, or if the attack could represent a rupture in Washington’s “ironclad” support for Israel.
Independent Middle East Analyst Adam Shapiro said if the US was not made aware of the attack, it was not “something new”.
“I think this is just simply the way Israel continually acts as the tail wagging the US dog, doing what it wishes, when it wishes, and getting what it wants, according to a double standard,” he told Al Jazeera.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military targeted Hamas leaders in Doha, drawing near universal condemnation and, according to analysts, crossing all previous red lines.
The attack reportedly targeted Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s exiled Gaza leader and main negotiator, who has risen up the ranks after Israel assassinated Yahya Sinwar in Gaza and Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last year. Qatar has hosted Hamas’s political office since 2012 at the request of the United States, according to Qatari officials.
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The attack came as Doha, which hosts the US’s largest military base in the region, hosted ongoing ceasefire talks to try and end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has now killed more than 64,600 people and wounded more than 163,000 since October 2023.
Immediately after Israel’s attack, a wave of conflicting information and speculation emerged, particularly over whether or not the US had been informed of the attack.
How was the attack planned, who knew about it, and why did it happen now?
Israel admitted to the attack almost immediately.
“Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility,” a statement by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Israeli media claimed the operation included the use of 15 Israeli fighter jets that dropped 10 bombs. It also included the use of drones.
The attack targeted Hamas leadership, who were meeting to discuss US President Donald Trump’s ceasefire proposal, but they survived. However, six others, including a Qatari security officer, were killed.
Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani called the assault “state terrorism”, promising to respond to the strikes, which he said “must not be overlooked”.
Israeli media claims the operation, which was labelled “Summit of Fire”, took “months of preparation”.
Israeli officials also told CNN that the decision to attack Doha was taken a while ago, while planning took place over two to three months, accelerating in recent weeks.
During the actual attack, Netanyahu was stationed in the Shin Bet domestic intelligence headquarters.
Until now, Qatar has been the base for negotiations between Hamas and Israel. Due to that fact and the presence of a US military base in Doha, many believed it to be off limits to Israeli attacks.
But that veil of safety seems to have been part of Israel’s plan, defence analyst Hamze Attar said.
“Israel [has been] incubating that Doha is a safe zone for Hamas leadership to gather,” Attar, who is based in Luxembourg, told Al Jazeera. “This is not an operation that happens in a day or two. This is something you create for many years in order to create a safe haven for someone so they keep going there and [eventually] eliminate them in a way they do not expect.”
It’s not entirely clear.
When Israel attacked Iran earlier in the year, its planes used Syrian and Iraqi airspace, since neither country has the capacity to shoot down Israeli planes.
Jordan, which does have air defence systems, claimed Israel did not use its airspace for the attack.
While the operation had been planned for months, Netanyahu said it was a response to a shooting in occupied East Jerusalem that killed six people on Monday.
But some analysts doubt Netanyahu’s explanation.
Right before the attack, Trump was ramping up his calls for a ceasefire. Netanyahu, however, may not be interested in a deal.
“I think the bottom line here is that Israel clearly is not interested in any kind of ceasefire or negotiations for a ceasefire, that the reports about Trump’s proposal negotiating with Hamas, whatever this revised new offer was, was all a ruse and theatre and clearly a coordinated Israel-US attack in Doha,” Mairav Zonszein, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst on Israel, told Al Jazeera.
Other patterns have also emerged that cast doubt on Netanyahu’s explanation.
For months, Israel’s premier has also launched military attacks that coincide with demands that he appear in court. Netanyahu is currently on trial over corruption charges.
And on Wednesday, Netanyahu returned to court to testify in his corruption trial. Footage showed Netanyahu entering the courtroom in Tel Aviv as proceedings in the trial resumed for the first time in more than a month.
The attack also came amid Israeli demands that Palestinians leave Gaza City in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands are taking refuge from Israel’s war on Gaza. Many Palestinians have been displaced multiple times and can no longer afford to evacuate, which could lead to many more civilian casualties amid already growing international pressure over what scholars and human rights groups are calling Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, where famine has been declared.
The White House, including Trump himself, said the US government was informed about the attack, but did not give many details.
“The Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas, which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Leavitt said that Trump told US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to “inform the Qataris of an impending attack”.
With the US Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, analysts said it would be difficult for Israel to pull off such an attack without being detected by the Americans.
Still, despite the advanced knowledge, the US expressed discontent over Israel’s actions.
Trump said he was “not thrilled” by the attack when interviewed by reporters.
“This was a decision made by [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
This sentiment was bolstered by Leavitt, who told reporters during a press conference: “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals. However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.”
Qatari officials said that by the time they were informed of the preplanned attack, explosions were already ringing out across Doha.
Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said the call from the US came 10 minutes after the attack had already begun.
Furthermore, Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said claims that the government had been “pre-informed of the attack are completely false”.
“The call that was received from an American official came during the sound of the explosions that resulted from the Israeli attack in Doha,” al-Ansari wrote in a statement on X.
Published On 10 Sep 202510 Sep 2025
The Syrian government has blamed Israel for a series of attacks around the country.
The attacks early on Tuesday targeted sites in and around the city of Homs in western Syria and the coastal city of Latakia.
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The Syrian government called the attacks “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic”, according to Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates.
Israel has attacked Syria hundreds of times since the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fell on December 8 and also conducted a land grab in the chaotic early hours after al-Assad fled to Moscow. Under the al-Assad regime, Israel waged a secretive campaign of aerial bombardment against Syria’s military infrastructure, but attacks have intensified since the war on Gaza began nearly two years ago and even more so since the fall of al-Assad.
In the first days after the fall of the al-Assad regime, Israel launched a devastating series of attacks that destroyed much of Syria’s military infrastructure in an attempt to create a “sterile zone” in southern Syria.
Israel and Syria have held direct talks in recent months, and while Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has ruled out normalisation, the talks are aimed at halting Israel’s aggressive actions towards Syria and reaching some kind of security deal.
So why then has Israel decided to reinitiate attacks? Here’s what you need to know:
The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israeli warplanes attacked a Syrian air force base in Homs, causing huge explosions. No casualties were reported.
Israeli fighter jets also attacked a military barracks in Latakia although there were no reports of casualties there either.
These strikes came on the back of Israeli attacks near Damascus in late August that killed six Syrian soldiers.
The Saudi Arabian news channel Al-Arabiya reported that the site targeted in Homs held Turkish-made rockets and aerial defence equipment. Turkiye has been one of the biggest allies of the new Syrian government and has reportedly agreed to provide Syria with Turkish weapons systems and logistical tools in a military cooperation accord signed in mid-August.
But as relations between Turkiye and Syria grow stronger, tension has been building between Turkiye and Israel. As Israel continues its war on Gaza, which international scholars have called a genocide, Turkiye closed its airspace to Israel and banned Israeli ships from Turkish ports in protest against the war on Gaza.
Turkiye’s good relations with the new government in Damascus have drawn a reaction from Israel.
Israel has also been accused of trying to undermine Syrian stability by voicing support for Kurdish and Druze autonomy.
This has led to a growing war of words between Turkiye and Israel with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “biggest obstacle to regional peace” in June, shortly after Israel attacked Iran.
Meanwhile, regional newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Netanyahu has been holding security meetings over concerns of Turkiye’s growing influence in Syria and Netanyahu is leaning on Israeli media to portray a confrontation with Ankara as inevitable.
The official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted Syria’s Foreign Ministry as calling the attacks “a direct threat” to Syrian security and regional stability.
Israel’s continuing and unprovoked attacks on Syria are “part of a series of aggressive escalations pursued by Israel against Syrian territory”, and the government rejects “any attempts to undermine its sovereignty or harm its national security”, the ministry said.
The ministry called on the United Nations to take a “clear and firm stand to put an end” to Israel’s attacks, which it called a “flagrant violation” of international law.
Israel has not commented yet.
But Israeli forces have been busy with attacks in Syria, Qatar, Gaza and Lebanon, and have been conducting raids on the occupied West Bank. There was also an attack in Tunisia on one of the boats in the aid-carrying Global Sumud flotilla heading towards Gaza that volunteers on board suspect Israel of perpetrating.
Not necessarily.
Syrian officials have said many times that they do not want a war with Israel. Syria has enough internal troubles going on along its coast, in the south and with the Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast, not to mention clashes along the border with Lebanon. Syrian authorities are also painfully aware that Israel is technologically and militarily stronger and backed by a global superpower in the United States, which has been crucial to removing sanctions on Syria and giving the country a chance to revive its economy.
As for Israel, ceasefires or other such agreements with other countries haven’t held it back from launching attacks on them.
US President Donald Trump said he’s “not thrilled” about Israel’s deadly attack on Hamas in Qatar that targeted a residential compound in Doha, where a delegation was meeting to discuss the US’s ceasefire proposal for Gaza.
Published On 10 Sep 202510 Sep 2025
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles says large underwater attack drones have ‘very long range’ of operations.
Published On 10 Sep 202510 Sep 2025
Australia will spend 1.7 billion Australian dollars ($1.1bn) on a fleet of extra-large underwater “Ghost Shark” attack drones, in a move that officials said would supplement the country’s plans to acquire sophisticated nuclear-powered submarines.
Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said on Wednesday that the Ghost Shark autonomous underwater vehicles will complement Australia’s naval surface fleet and submarines to provide “a more capable and more lethal navy”.
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“This is a profoundly important capability for the Royal Australian Navy,” Marles said.
“We have consistently articulated that Australia faces the most complex, in some ways, the most threatening, strategic landscape that we have had since the end of the second world war,” Marles said.
The government said it signed the $1.1bn, five-year contract with Anduril Australia to build, maintain and develop the uncrewed undersea vehicles in Australia.
“This is the highest tech capability in the world,” Marles said, adding that the drones would have a “very long range” as well as stealth capabilities.
Australia is in the midst of a major military restructuring, focused on bolstering its long-range strike capabilities in an effort to balance China’s expanding military might in the Asia Pacific region.
Marles also said that Australia was now a leading player in “the world in terms of autonomous underwater military capabilities, and Ghost Shark is capable of engaging in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and strike”.
Dozens of Ghost Sharks will be built in Australia, with opportunities to export to the country’s allies, Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy said, adding that the first Ghost Sharks will be in service at the beginning of 2026.
Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group has said it wants to incorporate autonomous technology into the country’s defence forces because Australia has a vast coastline and up to 3 million square kilometres (1.1 million square miles) of northern ocean that needs to be defended, but only a relatively sparse population.
Separately, Australia plans to build stealth, nuclear-powered submarines with the United Kingdom and the United States under the AUKUS programme over three decades.
But critics of the AUKUS deal in the US have questioned why Washington would sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia without stocking its own military first.
As a result of the criticism, US President Donald Trump’s administration has put AUKUS under review to ensure it aligns with his “America First” agenda.
Israel’s attack that killed six in Doha draws criticism from across the world as Israeli troops continue to bombard Gaza.
Published On 10 Sep 202510 Sep 2025
Israel’s military described its attack on a residential complex in central Doha, Qatar, as a “precise” attack.
In an official statement on Tuesday, the Palestinian movement Hamas said the attack killed five of its members, and a Qatari officer, but did not eliminate its negotiating delegation or any of its senior leadership.
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Here is what we know about the victims, and the senior leaders who were targeted – but who appear to have survived the attack:
Reports say the strike targeted senior Hamas figures, including Khalil al-Hayya, the group’s exiled Gaza leader and main negotiator.
Al-Hayya rose in importance after the killings of top Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, and military commander Mohammed Deif last year. Sinwar, who had taken charge in Gaza after Haniyeh’s death, was killed later in 2024.
With those losses, al-Hayya is now one of five leaders steering Hamas’s leadership council.
The leadership council refers to the temporary, five-member ruling committee that was formed in late 2024 to govern the group during the war.
Born in the Gaza Strip in 1960, al-Hayya has been part of Hamas since it was set up in 1987, but he became especially important on the diplomatic front, based mainly in Qatar, which became the main hub for mediation with other countries, including Israel, Egypt, and the United States.
Operating outside Gaza allowed him to travel and coordinate between neighbouring countries without the constraints of the Israeli blockade on Gaza. Al-Hayya has also led Hamas’s delegations in mediated talks with Israel to try to secure a Gaza ceasefire deal.
Al-Hayya’s own family have suffered as a result of Israeli attacks: During the 2014 war, an Israeli strike destroyed the house of his eldest son, Osama, killing him, his wife, and three of their children, and during Tuesday’s attack, his son, Humam, was also killed.
But he stressed that the loss of any lives is tragic. “The blood of the leadership of the movement is like the blood of any Palestinian child,” he told Al Jazeera.
Zaher Jabarin is believed to also have been a target of Israel’s attack. He currently serves as the movement’s chief financial administrator.
Earlier in 1993, Israel arrested Jabarin and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He spent almost two decades in prison before being released in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange.
Following his release, Jabarin rose quickly through Hamas ranks. He became head of the group’s financial bureau, managing and overseeing an extensive investment and funding network. He currently also heads Hamas in the occupied West Bank, and he is one of the five members of the leadership council.
The leaders assassinated during Israel’s attack in Qatar also include:
The sixth person killed, according to Qatar, was Corporal Bader Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari, a member of the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya).
With many of Hamas’s leadership killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, the group formed a five-man leadership council – which includes al-Hayya and Jabarin – and also has a senior military figure in Gaza itself.
Izz al-Din al-Haddad
Al-Haddad became the most senior Hamas military leader in the Gaza Strip after Sinwar’s death. Israel considers him one of the masterminds behind October 7 and has placed him on its most-wanted list. He is not a member of the five-man leadership council.
Khaled Meshaal
Khaled Meshaal, 68, has been a senior political leader of Hamas, a Palestinian resistance movement, since the 1990s. He became known when Israeli agents attempted to inject a slow-acting lethal chemical into his ear on a public street in Jordan, but the operation was botched, and the men were soon arrested. He is now based in Qatar, serving on the leadership council.
“It is true that in reality, there will be an entity or a state called Israel on the rest of Palestinian land,” Meshaal has said. “But I won’t deal with it in terms of recognising or admitting it.”
Mohammad Darwish
He is also based in Qatar, and is the nominal head of Hamas’s leadership council. According to reports, in early 2025, he met Turkiye’s President Erdogan and publicly endorsed the idea of a technocratic or national unity government for post-war Gaza.
Awadallah is a long-time Hamas leader. He is seen as one of Hamas’s original members and has held several important positions, including in its armed wing. Since the October 7 attacks, he has not spoken publicly or appeared in the media.
As the world’s attention was focused on Israel’s attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Israeli forces continued their unrelenting bombardment of Gaza, killing more than 50 people on Tuesday.
Among the dead are nine Palestinians, who had gathered in the enclave’s south seeking aid. Israel pressed on with its offensive in Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Palestinians to flee to the south for their lives.
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The Wafa news agency reported that a drone strike on a makeshift tent sheltering displaced families at Gaza’s port killed two civilians and injured others. Warplanes also hit several residential buildings, including four homes in the al-Mukhabarat area and the Zidan building northwest of Gaza City, it reported.
Another house was reportedly bombed in the Talbani neighbourhood of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, while two young men were killed in an attack on civilians in the az-Zarqa area of Tuffah, northeast of Gaza City.
Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency confirmed footage showing an Israeli strike on the Ibn Taymiyyah mosque in Deir el-Balah. The video captured a flash of light before the mosque’s minaret was enveloped in smoke. Despite the blast, the minaret appeared to remain standing.
Israel issued new evacuation threats on Monday, releasing maps warning Palestinians to leave a highlighted building and nearby tents on Jamal Abdel Nasser Street in Gaza City or face death. It told residents to move to the so-called “humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, a barren stretch of coast in southern Gaza.
But al-Mawasi itself has been repeatedly bombed, despite Israel insisting it is a safe zone. At the start of the year, about 115,000 people lived there. Today, aid agencies estimate that more than 800,000 people – nearly a third of Gaza’s population – are crammed into overcrowded makeshift camps.
Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, described al-Mawasi as a vast camp “concentrating hungry Palestinians in despair”.
“There is no safe place in Gaza, let alone a humanitarian zone. Warnings of famine have fallen on deaf ears,” he said.
The Palestinian Civil Defence warned that “Gaza City is burning, and humanity is being annihilated”.
The rescue agency said that in just 72 hours, five high-rise towers containing more than 200 apartments were destroyed, leaving thousands of people homeless.
More than 350 tents sheltering displaced families were also flattened, it added, forcing nearly 7,600 people to sleep in the open, “struggling against death, hunger, and unbearable heat”.
More than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, some 20,000 of them children, in the Israeli offensive, which has been dubbed a genocide by numerous scholars and activists. The International Criminal Court has also issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes.
The Government Media Office in Gaza said that more than 1.3 million people remain in Gaza City and surrounding areas, despite Israeli attempts to push them south. It described the evacuation orders as an effort to carry out “the crime of forced displacement in violation of all international laws”.
More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times in 23 months of genocidal war, and an Israeli curb on aid entry, including food items, has led to starvation deaths. Last month, a UN agency declared famine in Gaza, affecting half a million people.
On Tuesday morning, Palestinians in central Gaza staged a protest against the latest evacuation orders.
Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said that demonstrators carried banners reading, “We will not leave”, and “Not going out”.
“The primary goal of the [Israeli] occupation is displacement,” said Bajees al-Khalidi, a displaced Palestinian at the protest. “But there’s no place left, not in the south, nor the north. We’ve become completely trapped.”
Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces killed two teenagers in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the Wafa news agency.
Mourners on Tuesday buried 14-year-old Islam Noah, who was shot while attempting to enter the besieged refugee camp. A funeral was also held for another 14-year-old, Muhammad Alawneh. Two others were wounded in the same incident.
Israel sent missiles at Doha as Hamas leaders were meeting in the Qatari capital for talks on the latest ceasefire proposal from the United States to end the war in Gaza. Hamas said five people were killed, while Qatar said a security official was also among the dead. Hamas said its leadership survived the assassination attempt.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani condemned Israel’s “reckless criminal attack” in a phone call with US President Donald Trump. Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani called the attack “state terrorism”.
The Qatari prime minister said Doha would continue to work to end Israel’s war on Gaza, but raised doubts about the viability of the most recent talks. “When it comes to the current talks, I don’t think there is something valid right now after we’ve seen such an attack,” he said.
Qatar has sent a letter to the UN Security Council, condemning what it calls a cowardly Israeli assault on residential buildings in Doha.
The Doha attack has drawn global condemnation, with the UN chief calling it a “flagrant violation” of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar.
The White House claimed that the US had warned Qatar of the impending strike, but Doha rejected that account, insisting the warning came only after the bombing had begun.
Trump later said he felt “very badly about the location of the attack” and that he had assured Qatar that it would not happen again.
“This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals.”