Israel warned its enemies Wednesday they were not safe anywhere, a day after strikes targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar — a US ally — drew a rare rebuke from President Donald Trump.
Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed that Israel would “act against its enemies anywhere”, following Tuesday’s deadly attack on the Gulf state, which hosts a large US military base and has spearheaded repeated rounds of Gaza truce negotiations.
“There is no place where they can hide,” Katz wrote on X, adding: “Everyone who took part in the October 7 massacre will be held fully accountable,” referring to Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the nearly two-year Gaza war.
Later on Wednesday, Israel’s military said it struck Huthi rebel targets in Yemen, including in the capital Sanaa, as AFP journalists reported strikes on the Huthi armed forces building.
In a statement, the army said its targets included “military camps in which operatives of the terrorist regime were identified, the Huthi’s military public relations headquarters and a fuel storage facility” used by the group.
Palestinian militant group Hamas said six people were killed in Tuesday’s strikes on Qatar, including an aide and an adult son of its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, as well as three bodyguards and a Qatari security officer.
But the group said 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 and had warned Qatar in advance of the incoming strikes.
But Doha said it had not received the warning from Washington until the attack was already under way.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sought to justify the decision, telling an Israeli radio station: “We don’t always act in the interests of the United States.
“It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas,” Danon told 103FM, adding: “It is too early to comment on the outcome, but the decision is the right one.”
According to sources close to Hamas, six Hamas leaders including Hayya and former top leader Khaled Meshaal were in the targeted building at the time. AFP has been unable to reach any of them since.
– ‘Shaken conscience of world’ –
Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, 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 added in a statement.
Along with the United States and Egypt, Qatar has led multiple attempts to end the Israel-Hamas war and secure the release of the remaining hostages.
In Gaza City on Wednesday, the Israeli military destroyed another high-rise building as it intensifies its assault on the territory’s largest urban centre 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 organisation”.
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 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.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar hit back, writing on X that Europe was sending “the wrong message that strengthens Hamas and the radical axis in the Middle East”.
– ‘Not thrilled’ –
Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders in the Gulf 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 U.S., 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”.
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.
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