This frame grab taken from an AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing after an Israeli strike in Doha’s capital Qatar on September 9, 2025. (Photo by Jacqueline PENNEY / AFPTV / AFP)
Israeli officials quoted anonymously in several Hebrew-language news sites appear to cast increasing doubt on the success of a strike in Qatar targeting the leaders of the Hamas terror group’s politburo yesterday.
“Right now there’s no indication that the terrorists were killed,” an anonymous source is quoted telling Channel 12 news. “We continue to hope they were assassinated, but optimism is fading.”
Similar sentiments are reported by the Kan public broadcaster.
In Ynet, Ronen Bergman writes that two sources from the defense and intelligence community told him that, in his words, they are “pessimistic regarding the lethality of the strike on most of the targets, and perhaps all of them.” He adds that a battle damage assessment is ongoing.
He adds however, that another source noted that at least one part of the mission was accomplished: striking fear into the hearts of Hamas’s political leaders.
Hamas said in a statement Tuesday that its top leaders survived the strike but that five lower-level members were killed, including the son of Khalil al-Hayya — Hamas’s leader for Gaza and its top negotiator — as well as three bodyguards and the head of al-Hayya’s office.
Hamas, which has sometimes only confirmed the assassination of its leaders months later, has offered no proof that al-Hayya and other senior figures had survived.
Prime Minister Netanyahu, discussing the strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, declared that the era of Jews being murdered with impunity is over, noting the terrorists were eliminated in the very room where they celebrated the October 7 massacre.
The new ruling differs significantly from the government’s previous position, which was that only courts can decide whether or not Israel is committing genocide.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy walks along Downing Street on the day British Prime Minister Keir Starmer held an emergency meeting to discuss the Israel-Iran conflict, June 18, 2025.(photo credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Reuters)ByMATHILDA HELLERThe British Government has determined that Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told the chair of the international development committee in a letter on September 1.
This differs significantly from the government’s previous position, which was that only courts can decide whether Israel is or is not committing genocide. It also marks the first time the UK government has stated explicitly that Israel’s actions in Gaza do not count as genocide.
In the letter to Sarah Champion, Lammy, who was the foreign secretary at the time of writing, acknowledged that the UK government has the duty to prevent genocide under Article I of the Genocide Convention (1948) if it believes there is a serious risk of genocide occurring. This position is in line with the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case concerning the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
UK Government carefully considered the risk of genocide in Israel during its preparations for the Al Haq vs F-35 court case, Lammy said.
While he stated that the situation in Gaza is “utterly appalling” and Israel “must do much more to prevent and alleviate the suffering that this conflict is causing,” he wrote that it does not meet the threshold for genocide under the Genocide Convention.
Palestinians seeking aid supplies from the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation travel in an animal-drawn cart, near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2025 (credit: REUTERS)
The convention states that “the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.”
“The Government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent,” Lammy stated.
While the ICJ did warn of risks of genocide, to date, it has not found Israel to be in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention, nor has it found Israel to be committing genocide.“The British Government has now been forced to admit that the hateful rhetoric frequently published about Israel committing genocide is false,” Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Ellis KC, former Attorney General for England and Wales, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. He criticized the fact that the admission was buried in an “obscure letter released at midnight on a Friday during a ministerial reshuffle in the hope no one would notice.”
Neverthless, “it is now confirmed that the UK Government has concluded that Israel is not committing ‘genocide’,” he saids. “There has never been any evidence of such a thing, but this irresponsible Government persists in repeating the slurs and ramping up hatred and diplomatic attacks against Israel. It also shamefully fails to hold Hamas terrorists to account and thus helps to prolong the conflict in the Middle East”.”
F-35 program
Lammy’s letter also discussed the importance of maintaining F-35 parts exports.
“We are facing a critical moment for European security and war on our continent and the Government has a duty to consider the full implications of all arms export decisions,” he said. “The F-35 partnership is the largest defence programme in the world with over 1,000 F-35 aircraft in service globally. Undermining the programme would significantly disrupt international peace and security, NATO deterrence and European defence.”
“It is for that reason alone that we took the decision to continue exporting to the global programme,” he continued, noting that the UK has, however, stopped direct exports of F-35 parts for use by Israel.
