BEIRUT — Israel launched what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a "surgical, precision strike" on Hamas' political leadership Tuesday in the Qatari capital, Doha, killing six people in a barrage Qatari authorities condemned as a "cowardly Israeli attack."

The attack came as Israel is ramping up for a full invasion of Gaza City, warning residents to evacuate ahead of a ground operation even as it continues in stalled negotiations with Hamas militants.

In a televised address, Netanyahu said the attack was part of Israel's vow to hunt down perpetrators of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel.

"Today, Israel and I kept that promise," he said. "The days are over when terror leaders can enjoy immunity."

Hamas, in a statement, said all of its negotiating team — which was meeting to discuss the latest ceasefire proposal from President Donald Trump — survived, but that five members of the militant group were killed, along with a Qatari security officer. The attack, Hamas said, "confirms beyond doubt that Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement."

Videos and television broadcasts showed black smoke rising from buildings in Doha's Katara district, a normally quiet residential area where several of Hamas' top-ranking members have lived for years. One video depicts pedestrians running and screaming as a pair of explosions echoes through the neighborhood.

Hamas is one of several groups Qatar has allowed on its soil as part of its growing reputation as a regional facilitator. Qatar agreed to host a political office for Hamas at the request of the U.S. government, it says, and has hosted repeated mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel over the last 23 months of the war in Gaza.

In its statement, the Israeli military said, "Measures were taken in order to mitigate harm to civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence."

But Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari, in a furious statement on X, described the strike as "a criminal assault (that) constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar."

He added that Qatar "will not tolerate this reckless Israeli behavior and the ongoing disruption of regional security, nor any act that targets its security and sovereignty."

The strike on Doha adds to a growing list of Arab countries Israel has struck in the last month, reflecting the Israeli government's more belligerent post-Oct. 7 strategy against its longtime adversaries in the region.

Aside from its expanding campaign in Gaza, the Israeli military also recently conducted operations in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. In June it launched a war on Iran.

The strikes put Trump in a delicate position. Though he has provided reliable cover for Israel in previous assaults in the region, the U.S. counts Qatar as a top non-NATO ally. Qatar is home to Al Udeid, the largest U.S. base in the Middle East, with about 10,000 U.S. troops stationed there.

Qatar and other Persian Gulf countries have long justified having a major U.S. presence in their nations as a way to guarantee their security — an arrangement that has been undermined by the Israeli strikes, experts say.

The Trump administration tried to strike a balance between scolding Israel and supporting it.

"This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me," Trump wrote on his social website. "Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals. However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza is a worthy goal."

Trump also assured Qatar's emir that "such a thing will not happen again on their soil."

Crucial to how Qatar will respond is whether the Israelis informed Trump before the operation and whether he condoned it. Confusingly, the statement said that the U.S. military notified the Trump administration of the operation, and that Trump "immediately" directed special envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of "the impending attack."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sidestepped questions on whether Israel informed the U.S. military before the attack. Al Ansari, the Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman, later said that claims of advance notice were "baseless" and that the call from U.S. officials came as blasts could be heard in Doha.

An Israeli official, speaking to Israeli broadcaster Channel 12, said Trump gave the green light for the operation, but Netanyahu issued a statement saying, "Today's action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility."

The strike ignited a flurry of condemnations from regional nations, including the United Arab Emirates, long a proponent of peace ties with Israel and a founding member of the Abraham Accords, the Trump-brokered normalization agreements with Israel.

Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan expressed "full solidarity" with Qatar and described the attacks as "barbaric." Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and others echoed the sentiment with statements of their own. European leaders also castigated Israel for what they said was a violation of Qatar's sovereignty.

Tuesday's attack wasn't the first time Israel has targeted Hamas leaders abroad. In 2010, operatives with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad killed Mahmoud Mabhouh, chief of logistics and weapons procurement for Hamas' military wing, the Izzidin al-Qassam Brigades.

Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas leader who was not harmed in Tuesday's attack, survived a previous attempt on his life in 1997, when Israeli agents injected him with poison outside his office in the Jordanian capital, Amman; Jordan's then-King Hussein forced them to provide the antidote.

More recently, Israeli operatives killed Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas' political bureau, in an attack on his guesthouse in Tehran in July 2024.

The latest war between Israel and Hamas was triggered by the Oct. 7 attack, in which militants killed 1,200 people — two-thirds of them civilians — and took about 250 others to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli figures. More than 64,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, Gaza authorities say, have been killed in Israel's subsequent campaign against the enclave.

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(Los Angeles Times staff writer Andrea Castillo in Washington contributed to this report.)

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