ON 9 September 2025, Israeli warplanes launched ten missiles at Doha’s Laqtifiya district, targeting senior Hamas political leaders Khalil al-Hayya, Zaheer Jibrin, Muhammad Ismail Darwish and Khaled Meshaal.

Fortunately, they survived unharmed. This marked the first time Israel failed to assassinate Hamas leaders. Those leaders were directly involved in negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and for the exchange of Israeli and Palestinian hostages.

Despite the failure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shamelessly justified the attack instead of apologizing to Qatar. Now after weeks Netanyahu has tendered apology to Qatar on the mischievous attack. He declared Hamas’s political leaders terrorists and vowed to continue targeting them. But Hamas came to power in Gaza through a democratic election—just as Netanyahu came to power in Israel through elections. Hamas is a political movement with popular support. To label them as terrorists is deeply misleading.

For eight decades, Israel has been attacking Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Yemen—and even launched operations nearly 2,000 kilometers away in Iran, where Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated while in Tehran. Beyond Haniyeh’s killing, Israel has carried out numerous assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, generals and Revolutionary Guard leaders........

© Pakistan Observer