Mossad refused Qatar ground operation as Israeli strike on Hamas leaders fails

Dubai: Israel’s attempt to kill Hamas’s leadership in Qatar is facing mounting scrutiny after reports revealed that the Mossad spy agency refused to carry out a planned ground operation, fearing the fallout for hostage-ceasefire talks and ties with Doha.

Instead, Israel resorted to an airstrike — one that its own security establishment now increasingly believes failed to kill any of the Hamas leaders it targeted.

The Washington Post has reported that the Mossad itself had drawn up plans in recent weeks for a covert ground assassination in Doha, but its chief David Barnea opposed going through with it.

The agency judged that killing Hamas’s exiled leaders in Qatar would not only imperil ongoing hostage negotiations but also damage its sensitive relationship with Doha, a crucial mediator.

Despite Mossad’s objections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several ministers pushed the plan forward. Defence Minister Israel Katz, acting Shin Bet chief “Mem,” and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer were reportedly in favour of striking the Hamas leaders.

But Israeli Defence Forces chief of staff Eyal Zamir, Mossad chief Barnea, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, and most of the defence establishment recommended postponement, citing the potential danger to hostages still held in Gaza.

“The position was clear — there is a deal for the return of the hostages on the table, and the negotiations should be exhausted,” a senior official with knowledge of the talks was quoted as saying. Nitzan Alon, who heads Israel’s hostage negotiating team, was reportedly not even invited to the meeting, with officials assuming he would object.

The Post said Israel eventually opted for an airstrike carried out by the Air Force and monitored from a Shin Bet command centre. Unlike the Mossad’s covert killings abroad — including last year’s assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran — this time the agency “was unwilling to do it on the ground,” one Israeli source told the paper.

Additional operational details were disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, which reported that eight F-15s and four F-35s launched ballistic missiles toward Doha from over the Red Sea. The plan was executed swiftly to give the Trump administration little time to object.

Israel reportedly notified Washington only minutes before launch. US sensors picked up the missile heat signatures, and by the time officials warned Qatar, the weapons had already struck. A senior American defence official described the operation as “absolutely unimaginable,” saying the late notice left “no way to reverse or halt the order.”

Signs are growing that none of Hamas’s senior leaders was killed. On Friday, Hamas announced that Khalil Al Hayya, one of the group’s Qatar-based leaders, performed funeral rites for his son Hammam, who was killed in the strike. The ceremony effectively debunked early rumours that Al Hayya himself had died.

Netanyahu hinted on X that the men were still alive and should be targeted again: “The Hamas terrorists chiefs living in Qatar don’t care about the people in Gaza. They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war.”

Israeli officials are now weighing whether the Hamas leaders were never in the part of the building that was hit, or whether they escaped thanks to the use of precision munitions. Israel deliberately avoided larger warheads that might have caused mass casualties in Doha, wary of provoking an even sharper backlash from Qatar.

A Palestinian source close to Hamas told media outlets that Al Hayya and several other leaders may have been injured but survived. Hamas said Al Hayya attended his son’s ceremony under “special security arrangements” but did not release photos confirming his presence. None of the Hamas leaders believed to have been in the building have appeared publicly since the strike, as Hamas and Qatar maintain a tight information blackout.

The Washington Post quoted one Israeli familiar with the internal debate as questioning Netanyahu’s timing: “We can get them in one, two, or four years from now, and the Mossad knows how to do it. Why do it now?”

As doubts mount, the operation underscores the deep divisions inside Israel’s security establishment. For now, the costly strike may have achieved little beyond inflaming tensions with Qatar and raising fresh questions about Netanyahu’s judgment.