Israeli fighter jets over the Red Sea fired ballistic missiles targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, a U.S. Defense Department official said, quoted by the Associated Press and BTA.
The innovative tactic was likely aimed at overcoming the energy-rich country's air defenses and avoiding entering the airspace of any Middle Eastern country.
The Sept. 9 attack, which killed six people in Qatar's capital, Doha, has derailed months of Arab-brokered diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. in the Gaza Strip, which has lasted almost two years.
Just over a week after the rockets were fired, Israel launched a ground offensive against Gaza City. It reignited anger in the region over Israel's war, and the attack in Doha raised fears in other countries that they too could be targeted.
The Israeli army took advantage of the element of surprise, firing from a direction that was probably not expected by Qatar or the United States, whose forward command for the Middle East operates from the Udeidah air base in Qatar.
Even if those countries knew, experts say the Patriot missile batteries in Qatar would probably not be able to intercept missiles flying at speeds many times the speed of sound.
"It's probably a matter of minutes from launch to impact, so it's not very long," said Siddharth Kaushal, a missile expert and senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. "Even if the Patriot batteries had detected them, intercepting them at that point would have been pure luck".