Israel vows to strike foes anywhere after Qatar attack

JERUSALEM: 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”, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Qatar to expel Hamas officials or hold them to account, “because if you don’t, we will”.

Israel’s military said it struck Houthi rebel targets in Yemen on Wednesday, including in the capital Sanaa, as AFP journalists reported strikes on the Houthi armed forces’ media operation.

In a statement, the army said its targets included “military camps in which operatives of the terrorist regime were identified, the Houthis’ military public relations headquarters and a fuel storage facility” used by the group.

The rebel-run health ministry in Sanaa said at least 35 people were killed and more than 130 wounded in the Israeli strikes.

Palestinian group Hamas said six people were killed in Tuesday’s strikes on Qatar, but its senior leaders had survived, affirming “the enemy’s failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation”.

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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.”

‘Shaken conscience of world’

Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran 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 said.

Alongside Egypt and the United States, 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 usarmyed 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.

Israel attacks Hamas leaders in Qatar, Trump says he’s ‘very unhappy’ about strike

“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 Israeli military said it had struck 360 targets since Friday and vowed that it would “increase the pace of targeted strikes” in the Gaza City area in the coming days.

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 Qatar 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”.

Canada said it was reassessing its relationship with Israel following the Doha strikes.

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.