Day: September 12, 2025

Mossad, the national intelligence agency of the State of Israel, had refused carry out a plan it had drawn up in recent weeks to use agents on the ground to assassinate Hamas leaders in Qatar, leading to last week’s failed strike by the Israeli Air Force against a leadership meeting of Hamas negotiation officials in the Qatari capital of Doha, according to an exclusive from the Washington Post. 

The Director of Mossad, David Barnea, had reportedly directly opposed killing the Hamas officials in Qatar partly because such an action could harm the relationship he and his agency had cultivated with the Qataris, who had been hosting Hamas and mediating ceasefire talks between the terrorist group and Israel.

Instead of deploying Mossad operatives on the ground in Qatar, Israel on Tuesday turned to a secondary option: launching 15 fighter jets that fired 10 air-launched ballistic missiles from afar against the meeting in Doha. Hamas said the airstrike failed to kill senior officials, including its acting leader Khalil al-Hayya. Instead, Hamas said, the attack killed several relatives and aides of its delegation as well as an officer with the Qatari Interior Ministry.

Aside from Barnea, the Chief of General Staff for the Israel Defense Force, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, who has previously urged Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire deal with Hamas, also objected to the timing of the strike for fear of derailing the negotiations, while Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Defense Minister Israel Katz agreed with Netanyahu’s justification on the need for the strike against Qatar. Nitzan Alon, the senior military officer in charge of hostage negotiations, was not invited to a Monday meeting to discuss the strike operation in Doha, because senior political leaders assumed he would voice opposition to a strike that might endanger the lives of the hostages that remain in the Gaza Strip.

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) Sep 13, 2025