Israel on Tuesday carried out an air strike targeting senior Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, while they were meeting to discuss a ceasefire proposal for the war on Gaza.
At least six people have been reported to have been killed, including Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya’s son, Hammam, and his office director, Jihad Lubbad, sources told Middle East Eye. Abdullah Abdul Wahid, Moamen Hassouna, and Ahmed al-Mamluk were also killed, and several others were wounded.
Qatar’s interior ministry said Saad Mohammed al-Humaidi al-Dosari of the Internal Security Force, known as Lekhwiya, died during the Israeli attack while “performing his duties at the targeted site”.
Israel’s assassination attempt on Tuesday of Hamas leaders is not the first time it has tried to kill Palestinian leaders on foreign soil. It has a long history of eliminating or trying to eliminate Palestinians overseas. The operations span decades and have sparked multiple diplomatic crises.
Most famously, Israel launched a series of assassinations against Palestinians following the Munich Olympic attacks in 1972, which left 11 Israeli athletes dead and was said to be carried out by the Black September organisation.
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Palestinians killed by Israel following the games included Abdel Wael Zwaiter in Rome and Ali Hassan Salameh in Beirut.
Middle East Eye chronicles some of the other Palestinians that Israel has assassinated or attempted to kill on foreign sovereign soil since the 1970s.
2000s
31 July 2024 – Ismail Haniyah, the third chairman of the Hamas political bureau, was assassinated in Tehran, Iran. The former prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority was killed in his home shortly after attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, confirmed they had killed him six months later in December 2024.
2 January 2024 – Senior Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri was assassinated in Beirut, Lebanon, where he was living in exile after being held for 18 years in an Israeli jail and then deported. He served as deputy chairman of the Hamas political bureau from 2017 until his death and was one of the founders of the al-Qassam Brigades. He helped secure the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011 in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
January 2010 – Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was accused of procuring weapons for the al-Qassam Brigades at the time of his death, was killed in a hotel in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
The UAE accused the Mossad of assassinating him, and the killing led to tensions between the UAE and Israel. It also led to a diplomatic crisis with Ireland after two official investigations found that an Israeli government agency had forged two Irish passports for the operation to kill him, as well as other forged passports, including documents from the United Kingdom and Australia.
26 September 2004 – Izz el-Deen Sheikh Khalil was a Hamas leader who was deported from the Gaza Strip by Israel in 1992 to Lebanon along with hundreds of other Palestinians. He died after a bomb planted in his car exploded while he was in Damascus. He was Mahmoud al-Mabhouh’s predecessor.
1990s
25 September 1997 – Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas’s second-ever chairman of its political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, in Jordan, sparking international outcry.
Two Israeli agents entered Jordan with forged Canadian passports and tried to inject a slow-acting, lethal chemical into Meshaal’s ear on a public street. But the operation was botched, and the men were soon arrested. King Hussein of Jordan negotiated a deal with Netanyahu to send over an antidote.
Under Meshaal’s leadership, Hamas won the majority of the seats in the Palestinian legislative election in 2006 in Gaza. Meshaal stepped down as Hamas’s politburo chairman at the end of his term limit in 2017 and became the head of the group’s political bureau abroad. Meshaal was believed to be at the meeting in Doha on Thursday.
1980s
April 1988 – Khalil al-Wazir, also known as Abu Jihad, was the military chief of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He helped found the largest PLO faction, Fatah, in the 1950s. Israeli commandos killed him in Tunisia. Israel did not admit responsibility until 2012.
9 June 1986 – PLO leader Khaled Nazzal was shot four times in the head by Mossad agents outside a hotel in Athens.
2 October 1985 – Israel bombed the PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, and killed 60 people, including women and children. At least 60 people were wounded, 25 severely.
21 August 1983 – PLO official Mamoun Maraish was shot dead in his car in Athens by two Israeli agents on a motorcycle.
1970s
January 1979 – Ali Hassan Salameh, the founder of the Black September armed group, was assassinated by Israel in a car bomb in Beirut. Mossad spies became members at Salameh’s gym to befriend him weeks before he was targeted. A British-Israeli operative rented a place near him to monitor his movements.
June 1973 – Mohamed Boudia, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was assassinated in Paris by a car bomb placed under the seat of his car by Mossad agents in revenge for the Munich Olympics attack.
11 April 1973 – Zaiad Muchasi, the Fatah representative to Cyprus, was killed by a bomb in his hotel room in Athens. It occurred just two days after the Israeli military assassinated several other Palestinian leaders in Lebanon, dubbed Operation Spring of Youth.
Muchasi’s killing is considered to be revenge for the Munich Olympics attack.
16 October 1972 – Fatah spokesman Abdel Wael Zwaiter was shot multiple times on his doorstep in Rome, Italy, by a team of Mossad agents as an act of revenge for the Munich Olympic attacks in 1972. Israel accused him of being linked to the Black September organisation, but PLO representatives said he was in no way connected. The writer and translator was working for the Libyan embassy at the time.
1972 – Palestinian author and leader of the PFLP, Ghassan Kanafani, was assassinated by Israel in a car bomb in Beirut, Lebanon.
