Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back on Wednesday against mounting international criticism over Israel’s strike against Hamas leaders in Qatar the previous day, and compared the operation to US actions in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, despite the strike ostensibly failing to kill any of its intended targets.
The premier took a defiant tone in an English-language video defending Israel’s actions, and warned Qatar that either it must “expel” the Hamas politburo members or “bring them to justice, because if you don’t, we will.”
Comparing the Hamas-led assault of October 7, 2023, to the September 11 attacks — the anniversary of which is on Thursday — in which close to 3,000 people were killed when four planes were hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists, Netanyahu said that Israel “remember[s] October 7,” when “Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
“What did America do in the wake of September 11?” Netanyahu asked. “It promised to hunt down the terrorists who committed this heinous crime, wherever they may be. And it also passed a resolution in the Security Council of the UN, two weeks later, that said that governments cannot give harbor to terrorists.”
Israel followed that approach, said Netanyahu, accusing Qatar of harboring terrorists, financing Hamas and giving its leaders mansions.
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“We did exactly what America did when it went after the al-Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan and after they went and killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan,” argued Netanyahu, adding that the same countries that applauded the US for killing Bin Laden should be ashamed of themselves for condemning Israel.
Damage is seen after an Israeli strike targeted a compound that hosted Hamas’ political leadership in Doha, Qatar on September 10, 2025 (AFP)
Qatar later hit back at Netanyahu, denouncing his remarks as “reckless” and describing them as “explicit threats of future violations of state sovereignty”.
“Netanyahu is fully aware that the hosting of the Hamas office took place within the framework of Qatar’s mediation efforts requested by the United States and Israel,” the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The negotiations were always held in an official and transparent manner, with international support and in the presence of US and Israeli delegations. Netanyahu’s insinuation that Qatar secretly harbored the Hamas delegation is a desperate attempt to justify a crime condemned by the entire world.”
The bold Israeli airstrike on Tuesday targeted a meeting of Hamas’s top leaders as they were said to be gathered in Doha to discuss a new US-sponsored hostage-ceasefire proposal, aimed at ending the war in Gaza.
The gathering was believed to include all of the terror group’s top leadership outside Gaza, including the leader of Hamas’s Gaza units, Khalil al-Hayya; Zaher Jabarin, who leads Hamas in the West Bank; Muhammad Darwish, the head of Hamas’s Shura Council; Nizar Awadallah; and Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas abroad.
Hamas has insisted that none of its leadership cadre was killed in the strike, but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya — Hamas’s leader for Gaza and its top negotiator — as well as three bodyguards and the head of al-Hayya’s office.
But despite pessimism in Israel over the success of the strike, the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that two senior Hamas officials, members of the organization’s political bureau, were wounded in the strike on the Palestinian terror group’s Doha headquarters.
According to the report, one of the two officials — neither of whom was identified by name — was in “critical condition.”
Both officials were hospitalized in a private hospital under heavy security, the report said.
Providing additional details about the strike itself, the newspaper reported that several locations were hit within the complex that houses the Hamas headquarters, including the office of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, where the meeting was taking place.
Haniyeh was assassinated by Israel in July 2024 while on a visit to Iran.
But it was al-Hayya’s office, not Haniyeh’s, that was the primary target of the attack, the news outlet reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. As the two offices were situated close to one another, one of the bombs struck Haniyeh’s office, wounding two members of the Hamas politburo who were sitting in a distant corner of the office from the point of impact.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh leads other leaders of the terror group in prayer as footage of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror attack is aired on TV. Khalil al-Hayya is standing behind him (second from right).(Screen capture/X)
Separately, the sources suggested to the Saudi news outlet that the reason the attack failed to take out any of its intended targets was that Israel relied chiefly on phone geolocation to pinpoint the Hamas leaders’ locations, not knowing that they do not bring their phones with them to such meetings, and instead leave them in their offices or with their advisers.
In an official statement regarding the attack, senior Hamas figure Husam Badran issued a statement regarding the strike, arguing that “Israel’s crimes will not affect the decisions of the leadership nor our coordination with the other factions.”
“The criminal occupation is a real threat to the region’s security and stability,” Badran added.
Badran is a senior Hamas leader based abroad, who was believed to have been in Qatar at the time of the strike.
The statement put out in his name appeared to indicate he wasn’t harmed in the strike.
Mossad chief said to have opposed timing of strike
Some Israeli officials, including President Isaac Herzog, continued to defend the strike against Hamas leadership, arguing that it was the terror group, not Israel, preventing a deal from being reached.
Herzog, who is currently on a three-day visit to the UK, told the Daily Mail that Israel went after al-Hayya because he was standing in the way of a hostage release and ceasefire deal.
“We targeted Khalil al-Hayya because he objected to a deal on Gaza. He kept saying ‘Yes, but’ in negotiations,” he said.
Al-Hayya is “number one in Hamas and has the blood of thousands of Israelis on his hands,” Herzog told the outlet ahead of his meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) greets President Isaac Herzog on the steps of 10 Downing Street in central London on September 10, 2025. (Toby Shepheard / AFP)
Others, however, were said to be less enthusiastic about the strike, and had expressed reservations about it before it was approved.
According to a Channel 12 report on Wednesday evening, Mossad chief David Barnea had told the premier that he believed it would be a “mistake” to carry out the strike at this time, given that discussions about a ceasefire and hostage deal were ongoing.
Instead, the Mossad head was said to have suggested that Israel wait another week to launch he strike, allowing time for Hamas to respond to the US proposal.
‘Netanyahu killed any hope for hostages’
Meanwhile, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that there would be a response to Israel’s attack, and that it is currently under discussion with regional partners.
Plans are ongoing for a summit to be held in Doha in the near future around these discussions, al-Thani said, without giving a specific date.
The Qatari prime minister said Doha was reassessing “everything” about its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas for a Gaza ceasefire, as well as the terror group’s future in Qatar.
Qatar has served as the key intermediary in the nearly two-year war started by Hamas with its brutal cross-border attack on October 7, 2023.
Al Thani said that he had been meeting one of the hostage families the very morning that Israel struck Hamas officials in his country.
The families are “counting on this (ceasefire) mediation. They have no other hope for that,” he said.
But, he said, “what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages.”
He accused the premier of dragging the Middle East to “chaos,” and of “wasting” Qatar’s time, indicating that he believes Israel was not genuinely negotiating for an end to the war and the release of the remaining 48 hostages.
He pointed to the indictment against Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court.
“He needs to be brought to justice,” Al Thani said, cautioning that the Gulf region was at risk.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani addresses a press conference following Israeli strikes in Doha on September 9, 2025. (Photo by Karim JAAFAR / AFP)
The Gulf state reiterated its condemnation of Israel in messages to the United Nations, calling the strikes “cowardly” violations of the country’s sovereignty, according to the Qatari Foreign Ministry.
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Doha described the attack as “a blatant violation of all international laws and norms,” stressing that “it will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior” and repeating that investigations are underway.
Qatar also “requested that the message be circulated to the members of the Security Council and issued as an official document of the Council,” the ministry added.
The UN Security Council was set to discuss the strikes on Wednesday evening.
In a separate statement delivered to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Qatar’s representative said that “Israeli violations and crimes” in Gaza have been “extended to the cowardly targeting of residential buildings” housing Hamas members.
The ministry also reported that Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani received calls today from the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, affirming their solidarity with Qatar and their “strong condemnation” of the attack.
Canada examining ties with Israel
Qatar wasn’t alone in its anger over Israel’s actions, as Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said on Wednesday that Ottawa was evaluating its relationship with Israel in its wake.
Anand made her comments when asked whether Canada might follow the lead of the European Commission, which said it would propose the suspension of trade-related measures in a European Union agreement with Israel.
“We are evaluating our relationship with Israel,” Anand told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the ruling Liberal Party in Edmonton.
Asked specifically whether Canada was considering any kinds of sanctions against Israel, she replied: “We will continue to evaluate our next steps.”
Across the border, White House officials were said to be no less angry, given that the Hamas officials were meeting to discuss Washington’s plan to end the fighting in Gaza once and for all, the Axios news site reported.
US President Donald Trump has publicly said that he was “not thrilled” about the strikes, given that Qatar is a key US ally and home to the largest US military base in the Middle East.
According to the Axios report, US officials were also angered by the fact that although Israel chose to notify them of the strike, it did so when it was already too late to do anything about it.
A separate report by the Wall Street Journal said Trump told Netanyahu that his decision to target Hamas inside Qatar wasn’t wise. Trump made the comments during what the report described as a heated phone call after the attack, which the US president was angry to hear about from the American military rather than Israel.
According to the newspaper, Netanyahu responded that he had a brief window to launch the strikes and took the opportunity. A second call between the men later on Tuesday was cordial, with Trump asking Netanyahu if the attack had proven successful, the Journal reported, adding that the premier said he didn’t know.
The report also quoted a senior administration official who said Trump is increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu, feeling that the prime minister unilaterally takes moves that box him in and which conflict with his aims in the Middle East.
Israel has not directly addressed US criticism of its actions and Netanyahu avoided all mention of it, while at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for a boardwalk named after the 47th president on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, at a ceremony in Bat Yam with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, left, and Bat Yam Mayor Tzvika Brot, September 10, 2025. (Haim Zach/GPO)
Instead, he heaped praise on him, calling him “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”
“He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moved the US Embassy there, recognized our sovereignty over the Golan Heights, withdrew from the catastrophic nuclear deal with Iran, helped us confront the Iranian nuclear threat, and did many other things as well,” he said at the Bat Yam ceremony, according to a statement.
“He is a true friend, and I am proud to be here to pay tribute to President Trump,” said Netanyahu, adding that Trump had spoken to him “several times about beachfront properties.”
“He told me that we have wonderful coastal assets here. He spoke about a place located a bit south of here – in Gaza. He said it should become a place of peace, prosperity and good life, not terror. He is right.”