Palestinians ordered to evacuate Gaza city: Israel attacks Hamas leaders in Doha, draws condemnation

Strong reactions

The United Arab Emirates, which normalised relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords in 2020, called the Israeli attack on Doha “blatant and cowardly”.

Abu Dhabi was already angry over an Israeli minister’s plan for annexation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, saying that was a red line that cannot be crossed.

Regional power Saudi Arabia denounced what it called a “brutal Israeli aggression” against Qatar’s sovereignty. Egypt said the attack set a dangerous precedent.

Pope Leo, who typically refrains from speaking off the cuff, expressed unusually forceful concern on Tuesday about the consequences of Israel’s strike in Qatar.

“There’s some really serious news right now: Israel’s attack on some Hamas leaders in Qatar,” the pontiff told journalists outside his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said the Doha attack was “entirely justified” and was ordered after Monday’s Jerusalem attack and the loss of four Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

Order to leave Gaza City

The Israeli military, meanwhile, issued evacuation orders for residents of Gaza City, causing panic and confusion, after Israel said it was about to obliterate the area in an assault to wipe out Hamas.

Residents of Gaza’s biggest urban area, home to a million Palestinians before the war, have been expecting an onslaught for weeks, since the Israeli government devised a plan to deal Hamas a fatal blow in what it says are the group’s last strongholds. Anxiety was spreading through a tent area in Gaza City housing displaced cancer patients.

“There’s no place left, not in the south, nor the north, nothing. We’ve become completely trapped,” said Bajess al-Khaldi, a displaced cancer patient, as people looked on at the rubble of several buildings destroyed in an Israeli attack.