According to a report published Friday by the Washington Post, Israel’s Mossad intelligence service refused to carry out a planned ground raid in Doha to assassinate Hamas leaders, fearing that such an operation would collapse the ongoing hostage negotiations and jeopardize its sensitive ties with Qatar, which plays a central role as a mediator in the region.
As a result, Israel opted for airstrikes instead. Security officials now increasingly believe those strikes failed to eliminate any of Hamas’s senior leadership who were thought to be inside the targeted building during Tuesday’s operation in Doha.
That conclusion was reinforced Friday, when Hamas announced that its leader in Qatar, Khalil al-Hayya, presided over the funeral of his son Hammam, who was killed in the strike. His public appearance dispelled speculation that al-Hayya himself may have been among the dead.
The apparent failure has sparked growing criticism within Israel’s defense establishment, with questions raised about both the method of attack and the timing, given the delicate negotiations over hostages.
A senior official involved in the talks told Channel 12 that nearly the entire security apparatus recommended delaying the strike.
“The position was clear — there is a deal for the return of the hostages on the table, and the negotiations should be exhausted. Everyone understood the consequences for the hostages and that an operation like this at the current time could harm this possibility,” the official said.
Channel 12 reported that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, Mossad director David Barnea, and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi opposed the strike, while Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yisroel Katz, acting Shin Bet head “Mem,” and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer supported it.
Nitzan Alon, who leads Israel’s hostage negotiating team, was reportedly excluded from the deliberations because senior officials assumed he would object to an operation that could endanger the captives.
Two Israeli sources told the Washington Post that Mossad had itself drafted a ground plan to kill the Hamas leaders, but ultimately declined to execute it. That refusal forced Israel to rely on an airstrike.
They said Mossad chief Barnea objected to the Qatar operation, citing the agency’s delicate relationship with Doha and its role in the mediation process.
Israel officially said the strike was carried out by the Air Force in coordination with the Shin Bet security service, with the operation monitored from a Shin Bet control center. Traditionally, Mossad conducts overseas operations while Shin Bet handles domestic security.
The Post noted that Mossad was behind the killing of Hamas figure Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last year, played a key role in Israel’s recent surprise attack on Iran, and orchestrated the exploding pager plot that crippled Hezbollah operatives.
“This time, Mossad was unwilling to do it on the ground,” one Israeli source told the paper, explaining that the agency regarded Qatar as too critical to jeopardize.
Another Israeli with knowledge of the debate questioned Netanyahu’s decision. “We can get them in one, two, or four years from now, and the Mossad knows how to do it,” he said. “Why do it now?”
Neither Mossad nor the Prime Minister’s Office responded to requests for comment, the report said.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday revealed additional details about the operation, reporting that Israel used air-launched ballistic missiles fired from over the Red Sea.
According to US officials briefed on the mission, the strike was deliberately designed to avoid Israeli jets entering Saudi airspace and to be executed quickly so that the Trump administration would have little time to intervene.
The Journal reported that eight F-15s and four F-35s flew south over the Red Sea and then launched missiles across the Arabian Peninsula toward Qatar.
The United States was only notified minutes before the missiles were fired, without specifics. American satellites detected the launches and identified Doha as the target, but by the time Washington alerted Qatar, the missiles had already struck.
“Notice was given so close to actual launching of missiles that there was no way to reverse or halt the order,” a senior American defense official told the Journal, calling the move “absolutely unimaginable.”
As Israel reviews the outcome, officials now suspect Hamas’s leadership may not have been inside the section of the building that was destroyed, or possibly not in the building at all, Channel 12 reported.
Analysts believe Israel deliberately used precision weapons with limited blasts to minimize collateral damage in Qatar, unlike the larger munitions employed in Gaza and Lebanon, fearing that mass casualties would have created even greater diplomatic fallout.
There are indications one or two Hamas figures may have been wounded, potentially including al-Hayya, which could explain why Hamas did not release an image of him alive when confirming he had survived.
A Palestinian source with ties to Hamas told Kan that al-Hayya and other leaders were injured but not killed, though the group has not disclosed the nature of those injuries.
Channel 12 also said investigators are considering whether Hamas received an advance warning, allowing leaders to flee moments before the strike, although that scenario raises questions about why al-Hayya’s son did not escape.
A Hamas official told Al Araby TV that the group did not receive outside intelligence about the attack, attributing the survival of its leaders to its own security measures and those provided by Qatar.
A defense source tried to portray the outcome more favorably, telling Channel 12 that even if no leaders were eliminated, the strike “did its job.”
“Inside Hamas, voices are being heard that Israel is an unexpected enemy, and this scares them. When they see what happened in Qatar, they fear what may happen in Gaza,” the source said.
The funerals for Hammam al-Hayya and the other casualties took place Thursday.
Hamas said Khalil al-Hayya managed to attend the ceremony for his son due to “special security arrangements” in Qatar, though it did not release photos of his presence.
Since the strike, neither al-Hayya nor other top leaders believed to have been at the meeting site have appeared publicly, with both Hamas and Qatar maintaining tight control over information.
Al-Hayya continues to serve as Hamas’s chief negotiator in the hostage talks.
“Attempt On Hamas Leaders In Doha Failed”
Refusing to kill Hamas leader doesn’t mean ‘failed’.
There is supposed to be civilian control of the military.