Israeli attack on Qatar: Who were the Hamas targets in Doha?

Dubai: The Hamas officials targeted in Israel’s airstrike on Doha are among the group’s most senior surviving figures, as Israel has systematically eliminated much of the organisation’s leadership during two years of Gaza war.

The leaders at the table

According to reports, the gathering included the highest echelon of Hamas’s leadership outside Gaza:

Khalil Al Hayya: Head of Hamas operations in Gaza since the 2024 assassination of Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7, 2023 attacks.

Formerly Sinwar’s deputy, Al Hayya became the movement’s public face following the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in 2024. Based in Qatar, he has played a central role in ceasefire diplomacy, repeatedly leading delegations to Cairo.

Born in Gaza in 1960, Hayya is a veteran Hamas figure and part of the five-man leadership council that took charge after Yahya Sinwar was killed last October. A longtime ally of Iran, he has been central in Hamas’s truce talks with Israel, including efforts to end the 2014 war and the current Gaza conflict.

Al Hayya has lost close relatives in Israeli strikes, including his eldest son, Osama, whose home was bombed in 2014, killing him, his wife and three children. He left Gaza several years ago and is now based in Qatar, where he serves as Hamas’s main political point of contact with Arab and Islamic states.

He has said the October 7, 2023 attacks were intended as a limited operation to capture soldiers for a prisoner swap, but argued the collapse of Israeli units turned it into a wider assault.

Khaled Meshaal: The former head of Hamas (1995–2017) and current leader of the organisation abroad. Long based in Doha, Meshaal famously survived a botched 1997 Mossad poisoning attempt in Jordan, when Israel was forced to provide the antidote under pressure from King Hussein.

Zaher Jabarin: Head of Hamas operations in the West Bank. He assumed the role after the assassination of his predecessor Saleh Al Arouri in Beirut in January 2024. Freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, Jabarin has lived abroad since, reportedly spending significant time in Turkey.

Mohammad Darwish: Head of Hamas’s Shura Council, its top advisory body. Born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Darwish has lived his entire life abroad and has led several negotiating teams in ceasefire and hostage talks.

Nizar Awadallah: Veteran Hamas official and negotiator in the 2011 Shalit deal. Originally from Gaza City, he was jailed by Israel in 1989 for six years. After a decade of relative quiet, he re-emerged in the mid-2000s in Hamas’s political branch and has remained active since.

Why they were targeted

The strike came just hours after Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz Al Din Al Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for a deadly shooting in Jerusalem on Monday that killed six people at Ramot Junction. Hamas also said it had destroyed an Israeli tank in northern Gaza the same day.

In a joint statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz said the Doha strike was a direct response to those attacks.

Netanyahu instructed security agencies on Monday night to prepare for a strike on Hamas leaders abroad, a move Katz publicly endorsed.