American Official Reveals How Israel Evaded Qatar's Radars During Its Attack on Doha

SadaNews - An official from the U.S. Department of Defense explained today, Thursday, the method by which Israeli aircraft executed an airstrike targeting leaders of Hamas in the Qatari capital, Doha, without the Qatari air defense systems being able to detect or intercept them.

The official stated that Israeli fighter jets launched ballistic missiles over the Red Sea to target Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, in an unprecedented attack likely designed to bypass air defense systems and avoid entering the airspace of any Middle Eastern country.

The U.S. official told the Associated Press that the Israeli fighters launched the missiles from the Red Sea while Hamas leaders were gathered in Qatar to discuss a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Another U.S. defense official said that the Israeli strike was a "beyond-horizon" attack from outside Qatari airspace.

He explained that the U.S. military commonly uses the term "beyond-horizon attack" to refer to airstrikes carried out from long distances.

By launching ballistic missiles into space, Israel kept its missiles outside the airspace of neighboring countries, with which Israel has long sought to reach agreements and diplomatic recognition.

The Associated Press reported that the attack on September 9 killed six people in Doha and shattered months of diplomatic efforts led by Qatar to achieve a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, which has devastated the Gaza Strip for nearly two years.

About a week after the strike, Israel launched a ground attack targeting the city of Gaza, fueling regional anger over the war, while the Doha attack raised concerns among other countries about the possibility of similar attacks against them.

The agency noted that the Israeli army benefited from the element of surprise by launching in a direction that was likely unexpected by either Qatar or the United States, whose forward command operates in the Middle East from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.

It quoted Siddharth Kaushal, a missile affairs researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London: "We are probably talking about a few minutes from the moment of launch to the moment of impact, which is an extremely short time. Even if the missiles are detected by Patriot batteries, intercepting them would be a matter of luck only."