Israel launches attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar, blasts heard in Doha

Israel launched an attack on the leadership of Hamas in Qatar on Tuesday, expanding its military actions that have ranged across the Middle East to include the Gulf Arab state where the Palestinian Islamist group has long had its political base.

An Israeli official confirmed to Reuters that Israel had carried out an attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar. Qatar's Al Jazeera television, citing a Hamas source, said the attack targeted Hamas Gaza ceasefire negotiators.

Qatar y condemned what it described as a "cowardly" Israeli strike targeting residential buildings housing members of Palestinian group Hamas's political bureau.

"The State of Qatar strongly condemns the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the Political Bureau of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said in a post on X.