Pakistan today requested an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after Israeli strikes in Qatari capital Doha, which targeted Hamas leadership.
With Tuesday,s strikes, Israel is expanding military actions that have ranged across the Middle East to include the Gulf Arab state, where the Palestinian group has long had its political base. Qatar, which has acted as a mediator alongside Egypt in talks on a ceasefire in the almost two-year-old conflict in Gaza, condemned the attack as “cowardly” and called it a flagrant violation of international law.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan requested the meeting along with Somalia and Algeria, after “unprovoked illegal Israeli aggression” in Qatar to “discuss the situation and seize itself of this grave matter”.
“Pakistan expresses its complete solidarity and firm support with the government and brotherly people of Qatar,” Dar wrote.
Meanwhile, Israel asserted its enemies were not safe anywhere a day after the strikes, which drew a rare rebuke from United States President Donald Trump.
Defence Minister of Israel Israel Katz vowed that “Israel’s long arm will act against its enemies anywhere”, following Tuesday’s deadly attack on the Gulf state, which hosts a large US military base and has spearheaded repeated rounds of Gaza truce efforts.
“There is no place where they can hide,” Katz wrote on X, adding: “Everyone who took part in the October 7 massacre will be held fully accountable,” referring to Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the nearly two-year Gaza war.
Meanwhile, the Israeli ambassador to the United States said that if Israel failed to kill Hamas leaders in the Tuesday air strike, it would succeed next time.
“Right now, we may be subject to a little bit of criticism. They’ll get over it. And Israel is being changed for the better,” Yechiel Leiter told Fox News’ ‘Special Report’ programme late on Tuesday. “If we didn’t get them this time, we’ll get them the next time.”
Hamas said six people were killed in the strikes, including an aide and an adult son of its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, as well as three bodyguards and a Qatari security officer.
But the group said its senior leaders had survived, affirming “the enemy’s failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation”.
