Qatar's prime minister warned Wednesday that an unprecedented Israeli strike in Doha targeting Hamas killed hope for Gaza hostages, calling for Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to be "brought to justice".
His comments came a day after deadly strikes targeted Hamas leaders in Qatar -- a US ally -- a first in the oil-rich Gulf that rattled a region long shielded from conflict.
"I think that what Netanyahu has done yesterday, he just killed any hope for those hostages," Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told CNN.
Doha is "reassessing everything" around their involvement in future ceasefire talks and discussing next steps with Washington, he added in comments cited in CNN's live blog after an interview with the broadcaster.
The attack, just three months after Iran launched a retaliatory strike on a US airbase in Qatar, also cast serious doubt on Qatar-mediated Gaza ceasefire talks and undermined security reassurances to the Gulf from key ally Washington.
Earlier Wednesday, Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed that Israel would "act against its enemies anywhere" while Netanyahu urged Qatar to expel Hamas officials or hold them to account, "because if you don't, we will".
Qatar has hosted Hamas's political bureau since 2012 with Washington's blessing, and has been a key mediator in Gaza talks alongside Egypt and the United States.
Read More: Pakistan seeks UNSC meeting on Qatar strike
Israel's military said it struck Huthi targets in Yemen on Wednesday, including in the capital Sanaa, killing 35 people according to the rebels.
Palestinian militant group Hamas said six people were killed in Tuesday's strikes in Qatar, but its senior leaders had survived, affirming "the enemy's failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation".
The White House said Trump did not agree with Israel's decision to take military action.
Trump said he was not notified in advance and when he heard, asked his envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar immediately -- but the attack had already started.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sought to justify the decision, telling an Israeli radio station: "It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas."
'Shaken conscience of world'
Hamas political bureau member Hossam Badran said Israel "represents a real danger to the security and stability of the region".
Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Thani addresses a press conference following ‘Israeli’ strikes in Doha.PHOTO:ROYA NEWS
"It is in an open war with everyone, not just with the Palestinian people," he said.
In Gaza City on Wednesday, the Israeli military destroyed another high-rise building as it intensified its assault on the territory's largest urban centre, despite mounting calls to end its campaign.
The military issued an evacuation warning to those living in and around the Tiba 2 tower, before later saying it had "struck a high-rise building that was used by the Hamas terrorist organisation".
AFP images showed huge plumes of smoke billowing into the sky as the residential tower in western Gaza City crashed to the ground.
In the aftermath, young girls rushed to pick dust-covered dough out of the rubble.
Siham Abu al-Foul told AFP she couldn't take anything with her when the army issued the evacuation orders.
"They brought down the tower and we came running and there was nothing left... Everything we fixed in two years was gone in a minute."
The Israeli military said it had struck 360 targets since Friday and vowed that it would "increase the pace of targeted strikes" in the Gaza City area in the coming days.
The Gaza war has created catastrophic humanitarian conditions for the population of more than two million, with the United Nations last month declaring a famine in Gaza City and its surroundings.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she would push to sanction "extremist" Israeli ministers and curb trade ties over the dire situation.
"What is happening in Gaza has shaken the conscience of the world," she said.
Also Read: Trump issues rare rebuke to Netanyahu over Qatar strikes
'Not thrilled'
Israel's targeting of Hamas leaders in Qatar sparked international condemnation.
Trump said he was not notified in advance of the Israeli strikes and was "not thrilled about the whole situation".
"I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack," he said in a social media post, adding Hamas's elimination was still a "worthy goal".
Canada said it was reassessing its relationship with Israel following the Doha strikes.
Hamas's October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
US an accomplice in Israel-Qatar attack, says Hamas
Earlier, Hamas accused the United States on Thursday of complicity in Israel's deadly attack on its negotiators in Qatar, lambasting Israel for seeking to kill off Gaza truce talks as Doha buried the dead.
Tuesday's unprecedented Israeli strikes on a Gulf state sent shockwaves through a region long shielded from conflicts and halted already floundering Gaza talks.
"This crime was... an assassination of the entire negotiation process and a deliberate targeting of the role of our mediating brothers in Qatar and Egypt," Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said in a televised statement.
Barhoum accused Washington of being "a full accomplice" in the Israeli attack.
The White House said Trump did not agree with Israel's decision to take military action.
Gazans face new dilemma as Israeli forces advance
Palestinians in the relatively unscathed Al-Naser area of Gaza City were having to decide whether to stay or go on Thursday after the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning that troops would take control of the western neighbourhood.
Israel has ordered the hundreds of thousands of people living in Gaza City to leave as it intensifies its all-out war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas, but with little safety, space and food in the rest of Gaza, people face dire choices.
Palestinians transport their belongings as they evacuate Gaza City towards southern areas of the coastal Gaza Strip, on September 11, 2025. . PHOTO:AFP
"It has been almost two years, with no rest, no settling down, not even sleep," said Ahmed Al-Dayeh, a father, as he and his family prepared to flee the city in a truck pulled by a motorcycle, laden with some of their belongings.
"Our life revolves around war," he said. "We have to go from this area to that area. We can't take it anymore, we are tired."
EU lawmakers urge action against Israel
EU lawmakers on Thursday called to sanction two "extremist" Israeli ministers and curb trade ties over the war in Gaza, backing up a push from European Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen.
Also Read: Israel orders Gaza evacuation as it prepares for a major attack
The EU chief said Wednesday in her keynote annual address to the European Parliament that she would propose those steps -- putting the ball in the court of the bloc's member states.
But it will be very difficult to get the measures through given deep divisions between the European Union's 27 countries over Israel's war in Gaza.
The European Parliament said it had voted a non-binding resolution that "endorses the Commission president's decision to suspend EU bilateral support to Israel, and to partially suspend the EU-Israel agreement as regards trade".
It said it also "calls for sanctions" on Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The EU has faced increasing criticism for failing to act more strongly over the situation in Gaza.
WHO to stay in Gaza City despite Israeli call
The UN's health agency said Wednesday its workers will remain in Gaza City despite calls from Israel's military for people to flee an assault it is mounting there.
"To civilians in Gaza: WHO and partners remain in Gaza City," the World Health Organization said on its X account.
Israel's army is intensifying its attacks on Gaza City -- the main urban centre in the besieged Gaza Strip -- with the goal of seizing the city. This week, it warned civilians there to leave.
The UN estimates that around one million Palestinians live in and around Gaza City.
"WHO is appalled by the latest evacuation order," the head of the UN agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on X.
He said the Israeli demand that the city's one million people go to what Israel was calling a "humanitarian zone" in the south of the Gaza Strip was unfeasible.
"The zone has neither the size nor scale of services to support those already there, let alone new arrivals," he said.
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