A senior Hamas official has spoken for the first time since last week’s Israeli attack on the group’s leadership in the Qatari capital Doha, describing the moment of the attack and how the officials managed to barely escape.
“We were in a meeting, the negotiating delegation and some advisers. Less than an hour after we began reviewing the American proposal that we received from the Qatari mediators, we heard loud explosions,” Ghazi Hamad told Al Jazeera Arabic on Wednesday.
“We immediately left the scene, because we knew from the start that the explosions were Israeli shelling. We’ve lived in Gaza and experienced Israeli shelling before,” Hamad added.
Israel killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security official while trying to assassinate senior Hamas leaders. Those targeted were involved in negotiating a ceasefire and captives proposal put forward by United States President Donald Trump.
“The shelling was so intense, the situation was terrifying, and the rockets continued unabated. There were about 12 rockets in less than a minute, but by God’s decree … we survived this aggression.”
Hamas said its senior leaders survived the bombardment, which Trump said he was “very unhappy” about. On Monday, he reiterated his claim that Israel would refrain from launching further attacks on Qatar.
In response to the Israeli attack – its first on Qatar – leaders of Arab and Islamic nations convened in Doha for an emergency summit, denouncing what they called Israel’s “cowardly” strike.
However, the gathering concluded without pledges of tangible measures.
Hamad told Al Jazeera that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to change the Middle East needed an Arab response.
He also added that Hamas had a “bitter” experience during the ceasefire negotiations, and that the US did not have credibility as an honest broker.
“He [Trump] doesn’t scare us,” said Hamad, commenting on threats from Trump concerning the treatment of Israeli captives held in Gaza. Hamad added that the captives were treated “according to our values” and were only being put in danger as a result of Israel’s actions.
Israeli forces have killed more than 65,000 people since October 2023, including some 19,000 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
On Tuesday, a United Nations inquiry announced that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide, a finding several major human rights groups have also reached, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In 2023, South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice, arguing that Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip amounted to genocide. The proceedings are ongoing.
