Qatar did what the U.S. and Israel asked. The missiles came anyway

It was on Oct. 7, 2023, that much of the world learned for the first time that Hamas's leaders lived in air-conditioned comfort 2,000 kilometres away from Gaza — as guests of Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was still in Qatar when he learned that Israel had killed three of his sons and four grandchildren in a strike in Gaza. Israel would eventually kill him, too. But it waited for him to visit Tehran in July 2024 before striking him with a missile.

"It's one thing for Israel to target Hamas in, say, Iran and in other places," said Kamran Bokhari, senior director of the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington. "But Qatar is a major ally of the United States."

But Israel finally struck that major U.S. ally on Tuesday when it targeted th