Israeli strike on Hamas in Qatar adds fresh volatility to already unstable region

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• Geoff Bennett:

  A dramatic escalation in an already white-hot Middle East today. For the first time, Israel attacked Qatar, a key U.S. regional ally and the mediator of cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas. The target? A meeting of senior Hamas officials in the capital, Doha.

  As Nick Schifrin tells us in response, the White House voiced rare criticism of Israel today.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Today, an attack in a country trying to mediate peace. Residents of Doha flee explosions, multiple Israeli airstrikes targeting the homes of Hamas' entire remaining political leadership. Hamas says all survived, but six people died, including the son of one of the attack leaders.

  Israel called the strike a response to yesterday's attack in Jerusalem that killed six Israeli civilians, for which Hamas took responsibility, as well as the deaths of four Israeli soldiers yesterday in Gaza and the precise targeting of those responsible for the October 7 terrorist attacks.

• Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister (through interpreter):

  I said at the beginning of the war that no one involved in that massacre will get away with it. As prime minister of Israel, I'm working to fulfill this promise.

  Israel acted wholly independently, wholly independently, and we take full responsibility for this action. And this action can open the door to an end of the war.

• Nick Schifrin:

  But the strike targeted the very Hamas political leaders who could have helped end the war diplomatically. They were considering a new U.S.-Israeli back cease-fire plan for Gaza that President Trump had called a last warning.

  Earlier in the day, an Israeli official told "PBS News Hour" Israel had provided the U.S. a heads-up before the strike. But, today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the strike and said the heads-up came only during the attack.

• Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary:

  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. 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.

• Nick Schifrin:

  But Leavitt also suggested the target was legitimate.

• Karoline Leavitt:

  However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal. President Trump immediately directed Special Envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack.

• Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatari Prime Minister:

  The attack happened at 3:46. The first call we had from an American official was at 3:56, which is 10 minutes after the attack.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Tonight, Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani called Israel's attacks — quote — "state terrorism" and said they ended the Gaza negotiations.

• Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al Thani:

  When it comes to the current talks, I don't think there is something valid right now, while — after we're seeing such an attack.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Israel's attacks continued to target Gaza's largest city and its highest buildings, and today Israel distributed thousands of leaflets, instructing Gaza's city residents to evacuate to the south. Israel pushes on with its vow to capture Gaza City, forcing Gazans to once again pack up their entire livelihoods and flee to the south and to grieve the war's youngest victims.

  Omar Surour's grandson was sleeping when he says an Israeli strike killed him.

• Omar Surour (through interpreter):

  He was sitting there sleeping in a tent with his father and mother, and he didn't see anything except a missile that hit the tent. He was a 5-year-old child. By God, this is truly injustice. This is a crime you are committing.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Tonight, President Trump added to the White House's earlier statement about the Doha strike, and further distanced himself from it, writing — quote — "This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu. It was not a decision made by me."

  For a deeper look, we turn to Mona Yacoubian, director and senior adviser of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. She has over three decades of experience working on the Middle East. And David Schenker was assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs during the first Trump administration. He's now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

  Thanks very much, both of you. Welcome to the "News Hour."

  Mona Yacoubian, let me start with you.

  What's your response to Israel's strike in Doha today?

• Mona Yacoubian:

  Well, it's stunning. It's unprecedented. This is the first time we have seen Israel strike the capital of a Gulf country, and a country that also happens to host the largest U.S. military installation in the region.

  It marks a very dangerous escalation in tensions.

• Nick Schifrin:

  David Schenker, do you see it as a dangerous escalation?

• David Schenker:

  Well, I think it is something that is unusual, maybe not so unprecedented. Israel has killed Hamas officials in Arab states before.

  But this is something that I think the region, much of the region, will see as provocative and a little reckless.

• Nick Schifrin:

  So let's talk about the region. A senior diplomat from a Gulf country told me this tonight, that the impact of the strike is that nobody feels safe, because even the Trump administration, this diplomat told me, couldn't stop Netanyahu from attacking Qatar, which is designated a U.S. major non-NATO ally, and that — quote — "I would put a big question about whether the Abraham Accords can survive" — unquote, of course, the deal that the Trump administration made during the first administration with multiple Middle Eastern countries and Israel.

  So, Mona Yacoubian, do you agree that the impact regionally is that high?

• Mona Yacoubian:

  It's quite significant.

  I mean, these things — the region has increasingly viewed Israel as the primary threat, not Iran. They see Israel as acting with impunity and transgressing international law and norms on a regular basis. Whether it goes so far as to have countries withdraw from the Abraham Accords, that's an open question.

  But there's no doubt that the region increasingly views Israel as the chief purveyor of destabilization.

• Nick Schifrin:

  David Schenker, what's the impact of that? Do you agree with that? And if that's the case, is there a threat to some of the Abraham Accords work that you yourself did?

• David Schenker:

  Well, there was no threat that Qatar will now not be joining the Abraham Accords. They were not on the list or even remotely had the potential for being there.

  But I think there's other things that are actually more of a threat. Just last week, United Arab Emirates said they would slow down normalization, maybe suspend the Abraham Accords, withdrawal their ambassador from Tel Aviv if Israel decided to annex territories. We have heard really bellicose statements toward Israel coming out of Jordan in response not only to the threats of annexation of the West Bank, but also the impending big ops and — operations in Gaza.

  So, at a minimum, Abraham Accords aren't going to be expanded any time soon. Let's keep in mind, though, that this Gaza war, the longer it goes on, the longer, it's going to take for any of these potential partners to get in line, to normalize, to do anything close with Israel.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Yes, Mona Yacoubian, the cynic in me says, well, the impact on the Abraham Accords, the impact on the region is really just what happens in Gaza. And it's not really a huge impact to have a strike in Doha, despite what you guys have said, in part because the military leadership in Gaza is the one making the decisions, not the political leadership in Doha.

• Mona Yacoubian:

  Well, we're (Audio Gap) countries and (Audio Gap) have really come together in the face of this latest action by Israel.

  I don't think it's limited just to Gaza. I think the region more broadly takes a look at — takes account of Israel's actions. Let's note this is now the second time in just a few months that Israel has undertaken military strikes in the midst of negotiations, whether it was the U.S. and Iran or now the Qataris seeking to negotiate between Hamas and Israel.

  I think it's raising much bigger questions in the region about what role Israel sees for itself. What is its endgame? And I think it does broadly raise questions about whether or not and how Israel could eventually be integrated into the — into the Arab world.

• Nick Schifrin:

  David Schenker, if you were still assistant secretary of state right now, would you advise, should the president impose any kind of penalty on Israel for targeting a U.S. non-NATO major ally?

• David Schenker:

  Listen, I think Qatar can withstand quite a bit. Let's remember that this summer they were attacked by 12 missiles coming from Iran. They didn't do anything in response.

  I think Qatar, which sort of plays it both ways at many times, for them, this is sort of the price of doing business, perhaps. But, no, I don't expect sanctions. In fact, I think the U.S. knew about this well in advance. Udeid, our largest base in the region, has a force protection footprint of the whole island.

  And so this must have been cleared days, if not more, beforehand. But, fortunately, I think Qatar is — has accepted the — sort of the U.S. explanation, notwithstanding it straining credulity.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Just to be clear, very quickly, David Schenker, the White House said clearly today that it did not get days or any kind of advance notice. It saw the planes in the air.

• David Schenker:

  You know, the threat of mistakes for a major U.S. base in the region to have airplanes flying toward it, this requires some coordination beforehand.

  So I think the United States, the Trump administration is trying to thread the needle here, give the Qataris sort of plausible deniability that the U.S. was not implicated somehow. But my sense is that it's more than likely we had a little bit more advance notice.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Mona Yacoubian, just in the 20 or so seconds we have left, what's the impact of this on the negotiations to end the war in Gaza?

• Mona Yacoubian:

  I think the negotiations have been set extremely far back. Any hope for a cease-fire now is just a distant prospect, at best.

• Nick Schifrin:

  Mona Yacoubian, David Schenker, thanks very much to you both.

• David Schenker:

  Thank you.

• Mona Yacoubian:

  Thank you.