A damaged building, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders, in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 9, 2025. (Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)
Hours after an Israeli assassination attempt of a delegation of Hamas negotiators in Doha on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that, in the weeks before the attack, the group's leaders received "a vague but stern warning" from Egyptian and Turkish officials: "tighten security around your meetings."
Several consecutive Israeli airstrikes targeted senior Hamas officials gathered in the capital of Qatar on Tuesday afternoon. No senior Hamas officials or negotiators were killed in the strikes, the movement said later that evening, though the bombing killed chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya's son, the director of his office, and three of his bodyguards, as well as one Qatari policeman.
The attack took place just hours after Israel had expressed support for a new U.S.-drawn Israel-approved truce proposal, which the Palestinian leaders were meeting to discuss. On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump had warned Hamas "about the consequences of not accepting" his roughly 100-word cease-fire plan. "This is my last warning, there will not be another one!" the President added on Truth Social.
"In the weeks before the attack, Hamas leaders got a vague but stern warning: Tighten security around your meetings, Egyptian and Turkish officials told them," WSJ wrote. "Cease-fire talks were breaking down. Israel was essentially demanding a Hamas surrender. Defense Minister Israel Katz had threatened to annihilate the Gaza-based group’s overseas leaders if militants didn’t lay down their arms," the American publication added.
Israel did inform the U.S. about its intentions to attack Hamas, but did not say where the attack would take place and only sent the message once Israeli jets were already en route to Qatar.
The head of U.S. Central Command, which is stationed in Qatar, learned of the attack as he was en route to Cairo. According to WSJ, U.S. military officials saw the missiles launch and inferred who the target was. CENTCOM then spoke with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who notified Trump.
By the time Trump had received the message and directed White House envoy Steve Witkoff to call Qatar, the explosions were already being heard in the country's capital.
A report in the Turkish pro-government Turkiye Gazetesi newspaper on Wednesday claims that the Turkish intelligence agency, MIT, had alerted Hamas negotiators of a looming threat. Ankara had reportedly even gone so far as to deploy a special team to monitor Israeli aircraft, "contributing to the survival of the officials." The report does not specify when exactly MIT had alerted Hamas.
After the strike, some social media users and analysts accused Qatar of knowing of the strike beforehand. Majed al-Ansari, the official spokesperson for Qatar's Foreign Affairs Ministry, wrote on X on Tuesday that "the statements being circulated about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are baseless. The call from a U.S. official came during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha."
