SINGAPORE – It began with the birds – flocks of them, flying erratically, some nearly crashing into the windows of homes in the city of Doha, Qatar.

Singaporean homemaker Selena Ahmad Alkaff, 43, was sitting down to a meal with her children when they noticed the unusual sight on Sept 9. Then they heard what sounded like explosions.

The blasts were powerful enough to shake Ms Charis Hsieh’s apartment nearby, and rattled her dog, which began whimpering and trembling.

Ms Hsieh also noticed the birds. “That was the time I believed something was very wrong,” said the 54-year-old Singaporean homemaker.

Israel had just conducted an air strike on Wadi Rawdan Street, located in the upscale residential neighbourhood of West Bay Lagoon, just 8.5km away from Ms Hsieh’s home. Its aim was to eliminate leaders of militant group Hamas, which said

.

It was an unprecedented attack inside the territory of an important US ally and key mediator in the Gaza ceasefire talks.

Amid the attack, Ms Selena, who has three children aged seven, 11 and 15, received a call from her husband, who asked her to check social media for reports of a large fire breaking out.

He sent her a photo of a huge cloud of smoke that he saw from his office tower, less than 5km from Wadi Rawdan Street.

“Judging by where the smoke was, I called friends and families I knew who lived close to it, and by then, they had already carried out emergency protocols and were already evacuating the buildings,” said Ms Selena, who moved to Qatar in 2009 with her husband.

Singaporeans The Straits Times spoke to said they did not feel the need to contact the Singapore embassy for assistance.

Ms Selena said: “We were actually more concerned if the embassy was still standing. We were worried about the condition of our friends working at the embassy, not about ourselves.”

The Singapore embassy, along with a number of other embassies, is located in the West Bay area, a business district, less than a kilometre from where the air strike hit.

The city of Doha measures about 132 sq km, less than a fifth the size of Singapore.

Ms Hsieh said she was anxious about any loss of life, but did not panic or make plans to evacuate.

“We could look out from our apartment into a relatively heavily populated residential area in Doha and everything looked normal and nothing out of the ordinary. We were mainly trying to establish what actually happened,” said Ms Hsieh, who moved to Doha with her husband and two daughters in 2010.

Her daughters, aged 19 and 21 now, had earlier moved back to Singapore for their university studies. “They are not really worried since we ourselves are not. They were surprised but not really alarmed,” said Ms Hsieh.

The one that needed pacifying was the dog, she added.

While the attack itself on Sept 9 came as a shock, it was not a complete surprise, given tensions in the region, said Ms Selena and Ms Hsieh. Iran attacked Doha’s Al Udeid Air Base in June, and the deterioration of relations between Qatar and the Arab League led to the 2017 to 2021 blockade of Qatar by its neighbours.

The Singaporeans interviewed intend to remain in Doha, expressing confidence in the government of Qatar and its ability to ensure the safety of its residents.

Life has largely returned to normal, they said. Ms Hsieh said it was business as usual at her husband’s office, and people were not talking about the attack.

The Singapore embassy in Doha also continued with its planned dinner reception on Sept 11 to commemorate the Republic’s 60th birthday.

The event saw a turnout of a few hundred people, including Ms Selena, who participated in a dance to mark the occasion.

For homemaker Jonel Chua, there is some unease about Qatar’s response, and the 31-year-old hopes the situation does not escalate.

For Ms Hsieh and her husband, the 2017 blockade of Qatar has given them “good experience on how we might handle and react to this current developing situation”.

The contingency plan is to take the next available flight back to Singapore. “The only issue will be our dog. We would not be able to take her with us,” said Ms Hsieh.

Ms Selena said no one she knows has said they wanted to flee Qatar. “Our lives are here. This is home, regardless of how other countries may view Qatar,” she added.

However, the Singaporeans in Doha echo the

– is the American security umbrella still working?

“Did we think that they (Israel) would strike, in the middle of the day, a sovereign nation that has the largest US base in the region? We didn’t think they would dare,” said Ms Selena.

Said Ms Hsieh: “I think people are just in disbelief... Now it seems like there is no such thing as a guarantee.”