The Israeli defence minister had Doha’s gleaming hotels and the Hamas leadership on his mind on Monday morning when he hinted that something extraordinary was afoot.

“Today, a powerful hurricane will strike the skies of Gaza City and the roofs of the terror towers,” Israel Katz said.

The daytime Israeli strike targeted Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar.Credit: AP

“This is a final warning to the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza and in luxury hotels abroad: release the hostages and lay down your weapons – or Gaza will be destroyed and you will be annihilated.”

A little over 24 hours later, several precision-guided Israeli missiles slammed into a squat sand-coloured building in the northern coastal area of Doha, the Qatari capital, where several embassies are located.

Israel had struck at the heart of the Hamas leadership as they discussed the latest offer of a peace deal for Gaza.

Qatari and Israeli sources say they were formulating a response to a proposal by US President Donald Trump, released on Sunday night, that included the release of all hostages.

The Hamas officials who had gathered there in the heat of Tuesday afternoon had done so at the forbearance of the United States and Qatar.

Over the past five or six years, Qatar has become something akin to a Switzerland of the Middle East, albeit one with vast US military assets based there.

It is where the Taliban leadership gathered to make a deal allowing the exit of US troops from Afghanistan in Trump’s first term as president in February 2020. In short, it is supposed to be neutral territory.

It is also where many of the Hamas leaders cheered on the October 7 massacres in relative luxury, many kilometres from Gaza.

The terms of the peace proposal they were discussing on Tuesday were agreed by Israel, and there would be consequences if Hamas failed to respond in kind, Trump said.

“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday evening.

The Israeli plan would put a bloody end to talks. If, that is, the targets were eliminated.

According to Hamas, just five of its number were killed in........

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