Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a defiant message to Hamas terrorists and their enablers worldwide after Israel’s landmark strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar, declaring, “There was a time when Jews could be murdered with impunity, but since the founding of the State of Israel, those days are over.”
Speaking hours after Israel carried out the strike in Doha on Tuesday — a dramatic escalation against Hamas leadership enjoying safe haven in Qatar — Netanyahu defended the operation that sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles and warned that geography provides no sanctuary from Israeli justice.
The strike came in direct response to escalating Hamas terrorism that claimed the lives of four Israeli soldiers in Gaza and six civilians murdered at a Jerusalem bus stop, with Hamas leaders long orchestrating death from luxury hotels and villas in Doha.
“Yesterday four of our soldiers were killed by Hamas terrorists in Gaza and six Israeli civilians were brutally murdered in a bus stop in Jerusalem. This morning, Hamas proudly took credit for both of these actions,” Netanyahu said in his address, delivered from Jerusalem after emergency security consultations.
At noon Tuesday, he “convened the heads of Israel’s security organizations and authorized a surgical precision strike on the terrorist chief of Hamas” — the same leader who “planned, launched, and celebrated the horrific massacre of October 7.”
Netanyahu’s voice grew firm as he recalled the atrocities: “The savage murder of 1,200 people. The beheading of men, the rape and murder of women. The burning up of babies, the taking of over 250 innocent hostages, grandmothers, grandchildren, Holocaust survivors. They perpetrated the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
In a pointed rebuke to Qatar’s role as terror host, Netanyahu noted the Hamas leaders “were meeting in the same place, exactly the same place where they celebrated the savagery almost two years ago” — underscoring the brazenness of their continued operations from Qatari soil.
The prime minister stressed that the strike was “a wholly independent Israeli operation” for which “Israel takes full responsibility,” rejecting suggestions it was coordinated with the U.S. or required international approval.
“At the beginning of the war I promised that Israel would reach those who perpetrated this horror, and today Israel and I have kept that promise,” he declared, blasting global amnesia about Hamas’s crimes: “Now much of the world, including much of the democratic world, or government at least, have shamefully, shamefully, forgotten October 7, but I don’t forget and Israel will never forget — never.”
Netanyahu linked the Qatar operation to the broader effort to end the Gaza war, stating that “this action can open the door to an end of the war in Gaza” through President Donald Trump’s hostage release proposal, which Israel has accepted.
Turning directly to the people of Gaza, he urged them to reject Hamas:
Don’t be derailed by these murderous terrorists, by these killers, they don’t care a hoot about you. They live in sumptuous villas. You can’t imagine how sumptuous. Away from this battle scene. Their partners in Gaza don’t worry about you. They go to the underground tunnels and they keep you above ground so you serve as human shields for them. Don’t be derailed by these killers, stand up for your rights and for your future, make peace with us, accept President Trump’s proposal.
The attack drew condemnation from Qatar, which called the strikes “a blatant violation of all international laws and norms,” while the White House voiced disapproval, labeling it a “unilateral strike” that “does not advance U.S. or Israeli goals.”
The operation marks a dramatic escalation in Israel’s campaign against Hamas leadership, extending the conflict beyond Gaza to strike terrorists who believed Qatar offered immunity from retaliation. Netanyahu’s message was clear: the days when Jewish blood could be spilled with impunity are over.
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
