https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-end-game/
Just ten days after the Israeli Air Force all but decapitated the Yemeni Houthis’ leadership in one deft blow, and just under a year after the Israelis meted out a similar fate to Hezbollah’s senior commanders, Hamas’s Politburo abroad may have been eliminated in an Israeli airstrike.
In an unprecedented airstrike, Israel finally took long-threatened action against Hamas’s leadership inside Doha, Qatar – the senior members of which were apparently still taking shelter in Qatar’s capital city despite the government’s pledge to kick Hamas out at Washington’s request in November of last year.
“For years, these members of the Hamas leadership have led the terrorist organization’s operations, are directly responsible for the brutal October 7 massacre, and have been orchestrating and managing the war against the State of Israel,” the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement.
As of this writing, there are still conflicting reports about the status of the figures Israel targeted. We do, however, know who those targets were:
Nizar Awadallah, a U.S.-branded Specially Designated Global Terrorist and an associate of Hamas’s founders and spiritual leaders who has played a central role in negotiating prisoner exchanges with Israel going back decades.
Mohammed Darwish, the head of Hamas’ Shura Council and reportedly one of the figures considered to replace Ismail Haniyeh (who was neutralized in a covert Israeli operation inside Tehran) as the head of the terrorist group’s political bureau.
Zaher Jabarin, “considered Hamas’s ‘economic brain,’” according to Ynet, Jabarin was described as Hamas’s “CEO” – the man at the top of the terrorist group’s global financial network who underwrote Hamas’s terror attacks, including the 10/7 massacre.
Khaled Mashaal, Hamas’s leader abroad and the head of Hamas’s political bureau before Haniyah’s ascension, is under indictment in the United States for his involvement in a “decades-long campaign” of terrorism that has claimed hundreds of lives, including American citizens.
The Qatari government has bitterly protested Israel’s “reckless” conduct and the “blatant violation” of its sovereignty — language that mirrors Doha’s protests over the “flagrant violation” of its borders and international law following Iran’s effort to retaliate for Operation Midnight Hammer against the U.S.-run Al Udeid base inside Qatar. We subsequently learned that Tehran had given Qatar a heads-up in advance of that strike. The Wall Street Journal reported that similar forewarning was provided to the Qataris ahead of Tuesday’s action.