Israel’s attempted assassination of Hamas leaders in Qatar, a country that has hosted and mediated ceasefire talks between the two sides, has sent shock waves through Gaza. For many residents, the attack was not just another chapter in the war but a turning point that stripped away any remaining illusions about the possibility of a truce.
Israel struck the Qatari capital Doha on Tuesday as senior Hamas leaders were believed to be meeting to consider the latest US proposal to halt the war in Gaza. Hamas said its senior leaders survived the attack but five others, including a son of its top negotiator Khalil Al Hayya, were killed. Qatar said one of its security officers also died.
For Munther Abu Shumala, a 28-year-old sociology graduate in Gaza, the attack left little doubt about Israel’s intentions.
“Israel’s attempt to assassinate the negotiating delegation in the heart of Qatar’s capital is a message that it no longer wants negotiations,” he told The National. “It has decided to continue the war and slaughter in the Gaza Strip without restraint, even as Hamas was studying Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire.”
Mr Abu Shumala believes the attack not only jeopardised continuing mediation but also signalled a new phase of escalation. “The war could become even more complicated, and a solution may be further out of reach. Hamas won’t return to the table without strong guarantees to ensure its safety,” he said.
What troubles him most, however, is the toll on civilians. “The people most affected by all this are, first and foremost, the people of Gaza. The war weighs heavier on them day by day, and nothing stops it or lessens its brutality.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz appeared to confirm Mr Abu Shumala’s fears in a post on X on Wednesday, saying that if Hamas “do not accept Israel's conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all the hostages and the disarmament of their weapons – they will be destroyed and Gaza will be destroyed".
The Israeli military is currently escalating an offensive to seize Gaza city, in what the government says will be a decisive operation to defeat Hamas and free about 50 hostages still held by the group after nearly two years of war.
The military on Tuesday ordered the city’s entire population to leave and move south, after earlier issuing eviction orders for specific areas. An estimated one million people were living there – half of the Gaza Strip’s population – before Israel began its assault last month.
While tens of thousands have complied, others have been unable or unwilling, or, like Fuad Ghanem, clung to hope that a ceasefire would save them from having to do so.
Gaza city resident
Mr Ghanem, a 41-year-old father of four living in the Al Nasser neighbourhood, said that hope died on Tuesday.
“Israel’s operation in Qatar immediately made me decide to evacuate to the south to save my family,” he told The National. “This operation shows Israel’s intention to leave no room for calm or solutions. It will continue its war of extermination until Gaza’s last breath.”
Mr Ghanem says he has nowhere to go, but insists survival comes first. “For me, it’s better to live with my wife and children on the street than to lose one of them or see any of them injured,” he said.
“Day by day, Gaza city is being destroyed more and more. Evacuation orders fall from the sky as leaflets, while buildings collapse around us. If someone can survive, they must try, better than being fuel for a war of extermination while the world just watches and does nothing.”
The Israeli army on Wednesday told residents of another building in Gaza city, and those in tents around it, to leave before it was destroyed. It said Hamas was using the Harmony Tower to monitor and plot attacks on its troops, a claim it has made about more than 50 high-rise buildings that were razed in recent days.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said demolishing the high-rises was “only the beginning of the main intensive operation – the ground incursion of our forces.”
Mohammed Al Amsi, 29, who lives with his wife and three children in the Tel Al Hawa neighbourhood, said he had already decided to leave the city when he heard about the US sending a new proposal to Hamas to end the war.
“When talk began about Trump’s proposal, I had decided to leave Gaza for the south. But with the positive discussions, I thought maybe we could stay a little longer and see if an agreement might happen,” Mr Al Amsi told The National.
“However, Israel’s operation in Qatar destroyed all that talk and left us certain that the destruction of Gaza city is coming without question.”
He has now resolved to leave his apartment and move his family to a tent in Al Mawasi, a coastal area in Khan Youni governorate that Israel has declared a “humanitarian zone”.
“It’s impossible to keep going under these conditions, especially if you have women and children. Tomorrow, I’ll be leaving Gaza city for good. After the Qatar operation, Israel’s and America’s intentions became clear beyond doubt: they are pushing ahead with destruction and displacement until the very last breath, and no one will stop them,” he said.
Official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn on Wednesday. It said that five were killed in a drone attack on a tent sheltering displaced people in north-western Gaza city. Drones also bombed another tent near Al Ahli Arab Baptist hospital in the city, resulting in one dead and the injury of others.
In central Gaza, a man was killed and several injured in a drone strike on an apartment in Bureij refugee camp, and a child was killed in a strike on a tent housing the displaced in the city of Deir Al Balah.
The war began when Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people on October 7, 2023, and killed some 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians. Forty-eight hostages are still held inside Gaza, about 20 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 64,600 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. It says about half of those killed were women and children.
Prospects for a ceasefire and a deal to release the remaining 48 hostages, 20 of whom are thought to be alive, appear dim.
Israel imposed a complete aid blockade on Gaza in early March, letting in no supplies for three months, leading to famine in Gaza city and widespread hunger in the territory.
The Gaza Health Ministry said on Wednesday that five more Palestinians, including a child, died of malnutrition and starvation in the past 24 hours. The number of hunger-related deaths during the conflict has risen to 404, including 141 children, it said.
