The operation, coordinated with Trump, is intended for two purposes: a message to the terrorists, and the removal of the extremists from the negotiations. The hope is that whoever now leads the talks to release the hostages will be less rigid, and perhaps they will be conducted directly with the last senior official remaining in Gaza. And what will the Qataris do?

Ron Ben Yishai

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In operation "

Fire Peak

"Israel has taken the strategy of "decapitating the leadership" of the axis of evil led by Iran a step further. The airstrike on Hamas headquarters in Doha, the capital of Qatar, was apparently intended to achieve two goals - the first: to remove Khalil al-Hayya and possibly also Zaher Jabarin from Hamas's negotiating team, who represent a rigid and uncompromising position on Hamas's demands and demands in the negotiations throughout.

Recently, there have reportedly been differences of opinion between al-Hayya, who is part of the leadership in Gaza and the planners of the October 7 massacre, and the commander of the Gaza City Brigade, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the senior figure within the Strip. Al-Haddad was willing to compromise on several issues and was reportedly inclined to accept the latest American proposal, while al-Hayya and Jabareen opposed and presented tough demands. It is possible that a situation will arise in which Israel will conduct negotiations directly with Haddad, similar to the siege of Beirut in 1982, when negotiations were conducted (through intermediaries) with Yasser Arafat himself - and he did agree, through American mediation, to evacuate.

The question arises - why would Israel want to conduct negotiations directly with Haddad? Well, he is a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip now and he feels the increasing military pressure on him, and he is also sensitive to the suffering of the population that is forced to evacuate and is affected by the attacks. This is in contrast to the Hamas leadership in Doha, which sits on armchairs in comfortable hotels and is not subject to any pressure.

The second goal of the unusual attack is the desire of the Israeli political and security leadership to make it clear to Hamas and the mediators that we will not give up on the demand for the release of the hostages, nor for the removal of Hamas military and civilian personnel from Gaza. The intention is to prove that Israel will pursue the terrorist organization's members everywhere, including around the world, while risking confrontations with its friends like the United States and with a country that has warm and close relations with the Americans, like Qatar, in order to achieve this goal.

It can be assumed that the attack was coordinated with the White House (otherwise, the American base in Qatar would also have responded) and that Trump's people coordinated the attack with Qatar. The Qataris have a history of agreeing to attacks on their territory – the most recent of which was Operation"With a Dog": after American planes attacked the nuclear facility at Fordow, Qatar agreed that the Iranians would attack the largest air base in the Middle East on its territory, and

Warn the US in advance

The base was evacuated of planes and people before the attack, so no casualties were caused and the damage was not significant. It is very possible that a similar scenario occurred this time. The Qataris

Meanwhile, they responded with a statement condemning the violation of international law.

And opening an investigation, and it is likely that they will freeze ties with Israel and their involvement in negotiations, but it makes sense that they will gradually be renewed later.

According to reports, the attack occurred when the Hamas leadership was convened to discuss the American proposal for a hostage deal and an end to the war, but it can be assumed that this was psychological warfare – and the action was aimed directly at the most rigid figures in the terrorist organization's leadership. It can be assumed that Hamas will postpone the negotiations for a while, and that in addition to the Qatari fury, the Americans may also publicly express dissatisfaction with the action, and perhaps deny that there was coordination. However, it is likely that the negotiations will resume later, and perhaps then they will be led by less rigid people from among the Hamas leadership – whether Haddad himself from Gaza, or people from the second and third ranks who are permanently in Turkey.