The meeting felt an urgent feeling.
Qatar’s Prime Minister sat across from Hamas’ chief negotiator, Khalil al-Haiya, under the Gulf country’s maroon and white flag on Monday evening. The two had met many times before, and often did not bring fruit.
But this time it was different.
The US had just submitted a new ceasefire proposal that could end the nearly two-year war in Gaza. And Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jasim al-Thani had pressured Al Haiya to accept him.
According to sources familiar with the meeting, the discussion concluded before 9:30pm, but the actual work had just begun. After Al Haiya left, Qatari negotiators called with Israeli counterparts to update their early ceasefire efforts.
Unlike most proposals that came from Qatar and Egypt, the plan, two key mediators who can talk to the US, Israel and Hamas, came directly from the Trump administration. Qatar’s negotiator met with US envoy Steve Witkov in Paris last week, and President Donald Trump wanted to see progress.
On Sunday, Trump issued what he described as his “last warning” to Hamas to accept the contract. He argued that Israel accepted the proposal, despite Israeli officials saying it was “seriously considering it.”
It fell to Qatar to turn the proposal into an agreement.
The call between Qatar and Israeli negotiation teams continued until 5am. Hamas had promised to deal with Qatari negotiators in 12 hours.
Israel had other plans.
Before time passed, Israeli missiles had crashed into building a home in Doha, and Israeli intelligence agency believed that senior Hamas leaders had gathered.
CNN has spoken with more than a dozen officials and sources from Israel, Qatar and the US to piece together a timeline of key moments about operations that could reform the region. One attack featured US credibility across the Middle East on the line. Qatar and its neighbors were furious, the US was surprised, and Israel did not apologise.
For more than two months, Israel had planned a bold and brave military operation. It’s a strike against senior Hamas leaders in Doha. The city has become an important hub for freeing hostages and ending the war.
Shortly after the attack on October 7, 2023, Israel revealed it would target Hamas leaders in Gaza and overseas. International borders were not protection of extremist groups. However, these attacks and operations took place only in enemy states, including the killing of Iran’s Ismail Hanie and Lebanon’s Saleh Al-Aroli.
The strike in Qatar will be an attack on sovereign states that have played an important mediation role in ceasefire talks and hosted a large US presence. Qatar also lived in the senior Hamas leaders, including Khalil Al Haiya. The group’s chief negotiators lived in Doha for years.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s relationship with the US is steadily growing. For over 20 years, the Pentagon has adopted Al-udeid Air Force Base as the largest facility in the region. In 2022, former President Joe Biden declared the Gulf state as the major non-nat alley. Last year, US and Qatar sources agreed to CNN to oust Hamas leaders, but there was little to no promise. Some of the group’s leaders remain in Doha.
In May, Trump became the first sitting US president to visit the Gulf state, and promised Qatar, saying, “We’re going to protect this country.” Doha pledged a $1.2 trillion economic commitment to the US in Trump’s short-term stay in the country, and presented his government with a jumbo jet to use as an air force.
Israel has complicated ties with Qatar. Although there is no formal bond between the two Middle Eastern countries, officials have been coming and going on a regular basis for years. Qatar established low-level diplomatic relations with Israel in 1996, but in 2000 it closed Israeli Doha Trade Bureau. In 2018, there was a marked increase in 2018 when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars from Qatar to Gaza. Money carried in cash suitcases during frequent visits to Hamas-controlled territory by Doha envoys was targeted at civil servants’ salaries, families in need, and utilities.
However, relations have deteriorated significantly since the start of the war in Gaza, with Israeli officials expressing anger towards Qatar, accusing Hamas of harboring it and not putting enough pressure on them to agree to a ceasefire.
The Israeli government concluded that the blow in Qatar is worth the risk. Over the past few weeks, we have accelerated plans for complex, long-range missions. When the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) advanced in an attack on Gaza city, the Israeli Air Force prepared for the first Israeli strike in the Gulf Arab states.
When did you get the question?
The IDF Chief of Staff questioned the timing of the operation that will take place a few days after General Eyal Zamir and Chief Mossad David Barnea, who were regulars in Doha for the past two years, came up with a proposal for a new suspension.
However, recently, as Netanyahu prioritizes the demands of his far-right coalition partners, the two have been on the sidelines for some of Israel’s important security decisions.
Zamir opposed the government’s plan to take over and occupy Gaza city, warning that soldiers and the remaining 48 hostages would be in danger. His concerns were pushed aside. In February, Balnea was replaced by Netanyahu’s confidant Ron Dahmer as head of the Israeli negotiation team.
Now, Netanyahu was once again moving forward with the reservations of his two top security officers.
The operation received preliminary approval on Monday, Israeli officials said. Singh Bett, an Israeli internal security agency, is primarily responsible for monitoring Hamas, but he had the intelligence that Hamas officials were convened in Doha to discuss the exact proposals that the US was moving forward. It is unclear whether this is the same meeting that Qatar’s Prime Minister forced Hamas to accept the contract.
The key target was Al-Hayya. Israel delayed surgery up to a day to solidify ID. Final approval came just hours before the strike.
More than 10 Israeli fighters attacked the Middle Eastern skies on Tuesday afternoon. Although the IDF does not publicly state any aircraft or weapons in which the aircraft or weapon was used in the operation, Israeli F-35I, F-15 and F-16 fighter jets were used extensively during a 12-day conflict with Iran, which is similar to Qatar’s operations. Obtained from the US, the Jets had proven their temperament that they were operating in an environment saturated with enemy radar.
Only now, they were American radar scanning the sky.
The United States maintains a massive military presence at Al Udeid Air Force Base, just outside Doha. The vast facility is the core of most of the US Air Force in the Middle East, and the US Central Command, which controls US operations in the region, considers unidentified aircraft as a potential threat. Qatar also boasts one of the region’s most advanced early warning radar systems, coupled with the Patriot air defense missile system.
Israel had to notify the United States without putting the operation at risk. Too many advance warnings give the Trump administration time to communicate to Qatar, which can inform Hamas of the impending strike.
Netanyahu collapsed at the Special Operations Command Center in Sinbet, central Israel, when Israeli fighters cut across the sky. In the photo released by Singh Bett, Israeli Defense Minister Katz and Netanyahu’s Chief of Staff are seen staring at his shoulders.
At 3:46pm, more than 10 ammunition attacked the construction of a home in central Doha, what the IDF called an “exact strike.”
Israel intentionally waited until the very end to inform the Trump administration of the strike. The US knew that it would soon inform Qatar of the attack. However, it is unclear exactly how the notification progressed.
Instead of a direct call between two leaders that would have been unconventional between Netanyahu and Trump, key notices about unprecedented attacks on major US allies took a detour route.
The chairman of Chief of Staff Dan Kane, the US chief general, told Trump about the operation. Trump notified Steve Witkoff’s mission, who notified Catalis.
By the time Catalis received the call, the strike had already taken place 10 minutes ago.
Israel took full responsibility for the attacks in order to keep the United States away from its mission. Netanyahu said it was a “completely independent Israeli operation.” The statement was made at the request of the United States.
The Qatari Prime Minister, who had been pushing Hamas to accept the proposal a day ago, was furious calling the attack “state terrorism.”
In an exclusive interview with CNN, Al-Thani said: “Since October 7th, looking at Netanyahu’s patterns of behavior, it has become a very systematic way of trying to undermine stability, the possibility of peace and the chances of retrieving your hostages since the start of the war.”
For Israel, the bigger problem was the United States. Trump said he was “very unhappy about every aspect of the strike.” Several Trump’s advisors were angry at the decision to carry out the attack, and many were unhappy with the failure to squeeze or warn Katalis.
Hours after the strike, Netanyahu spoke to Trump on two separate phone calls. “The conversation was very good,” an Israeli official said.
White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt did not condemn the targets of Hamas leaders overseas, even if she criticized the operation.
“We are unilaterally bombing within Qatar, sovereign nation, close ally of the United States, working very hard to bravely tackle broker peace with us, and will not advance Israeli or American goals,” Lewitt said Tuesday.
Israel portrayed the attack as a step that could bring the end of the war closer to the same claim that took place after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Singwar and his younger brother Mohamed Singwar, Gaza’s younger brother Mohamed Singwar. However, the conflict is now less than a month after the two-year mark. Between our frustration and Qatar, Netanyahu said that he “killed hopes for those hostages,” and negotiation efforts suddenly have no clear way.
But for now, Israel has another major problem.
Hamas said Tuesday night that Israel had failed to assassinate Al Hayyah and the negotiating delegation. Instead, five lower-level Hamas members were killed on strike and Qatari guards were killed.
By Wednesday morning, questions were growing in Israel about the success of the operation. Within hours, the question grew into pessimism.
After all, the strike wasn’t that accurate.
