Speaking alongside US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to acknowledge that Israel did not kill Hamas leaders in its strike in Qatar last week, while putting a positive spin on the outcome.
“It didn’t fail, because it had one central message and we considered it before we launched it, and that is, you can hide, you can run, but we’ll get you,” he said at a Jerusalem press conference.
Israel targeted Hamas leaders last Tuesday in strikes in the Qatari capital that were said to kill five members of the terror group and a Qatari security officer. Israel’s security establishment was said to believe that the attack failed to take out Hamas’s top brass.
The strike elicited fury from Arab governments, including those with full diplomatic ties with Israel. On Monday, the leaders of Arab and Islamic states berated Israel in Doha at an emergency gathering in the wake of the attack.
US President Donald Trump has also expressed his displeasure, while tempering his public statements. He told reporters on Sunday that Israel must be “very, very careful” about how it handles Qatar, which he called a “great ally.”
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Trump sounded similar notes shortly after the attack, when he posted on social media that the strike “does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” though he said that eliminating Hamas is a “worthy goal.
Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani (C) welcomes King Abdullah II of Jordan upon his arrival to attend an Arab Islamic summit in Doha on September 15, 2025. (Qatar News Agency / AFP)
In a seeming gesture meant to reduce blowback to Washington in the wake of the strike, Netanyahu stressed at Monday’s press conference that Israel’s decision to act against Hamas in Qatar was a “wholly independent decision.”
“We assume full responsibility,” he said. “We did it on our own. Period.”
Rubio also sought to move past any public disagreement with Israel over the strike, saying, “We are focused on what happens next.”
At the same time, Netanyahu expressed sentiment that could be interpreted as an implicit rebuke of US criticism of the attack, blasting the “immense cynicism and hypocrisy” of those who assailed Israel over the strike.
Netanyahu pointed out UN Resolution 1373, ratified after the 9/11attacks, which says that no country can harbor or give safe haven to terrorists.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, on September 15, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The prime minister stressed that, after the 2001 attacks, the US “acted very boldly against the terrorist havens that were given to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The terrorist haven that was given to the chief terrorist [Osama] Bin Laden in Pakistan.”
Rubio will visit Qatar on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported, citing two American sources.
Rubio met with Netanyahu one-on-one for about an hour and a half before an expanded meeting with aides.
He also met Monday with Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and President Isaac Herzog.
A ‘concise’ Gaza operation
Rubio’s visit came as Israel gears up for its announced full-fledged invasion of Gaza City. On Monday, Israeli forces continued to bring down high-rise buildings in the northern Gaza metropolis.
Flames erupt from a building following an Israeli military strike in Gaza City, September 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Yousef Al Zanoun)
In recent days, the IDF has instructed Palestinians in all areas of Gaza City to leave for the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in the Strip’s south, ahead of a major offensive against Hamas. Out of the one million Palestinians who were in Gaza City, more than 320,000 have evacuated, according to IDF estimates.
Before his trip, Rubio said he would speak to Netanyahu about Israeli military plans to seize Gaza City, the largest urban center in the devastated territory, as well as the government’s talk of annexing parts of the West Bank in hopes of precluding a Palestinian state.
Rubio earlier said Trump wants the Gaza war to be “finished with,” which would mean the release of hostages and ensuring Hamas is “no longer a threat.”
Demonstrators protest near the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, September 13, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
But alongside Netanyahu, he showed firm support for Israel, saying that the “ideal outcome” is for Hamas to simply surrender, but “it may require ultimately a concise military operation to eliminate them.”
“As much as we may wish that there be a sort of a peaceful diplomatic way to end it,” said Rubio, “and we’ll continue to explore and be dedicated to it, we also have to be prepared for the possibility that that’s not going to happen.”
“Every single hostage, both living and deceased,” must be returned home immediately, said Rubio, and Hamas “can no longer continue to exist as an armed element that threatens the peace and security, not just of Israel, but of the world.”
Gazans deserve a better future, he continued, but that can’t begin “until Hamas is eliminated and until all of the hostages, both living and deceased, are home.”
Trump remains “committed firmly” to those goals, he said.
