If Israel didn't kill Hamas leaders in its airstrike on Qatar on Tuesday, it will succeed next time, the Israeli ambassador to the United States said after the operation that raised concerns it would torpedo efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza.
"We may be the subject of some light criticism right now. It will pass. And Israel is changing for the better," Yechiel Leiter said on "Special Report" on Fox News late Tuesday.
"The region is changing for the better as we remove these enemies of peace and these enemies of Western civilization from their ability to carry out terrorism."
Israel attempted to assassinate Hamas political leaders in an attack in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, escalating its military actions in the Middle East. What the United States called a unilateral attack that was not in the interests of America and Israel.
The operation was particularly sensitive because mediator Qatar is hosting talks aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war, which has been raging for nearly two years.
"If we didn't hit them this time, we will hit them next time," Leiter said.
Hamas said five of its members were killed in the attack, including the son of Gaza's exiled leader and chief negotiator Khalil al-Haya. Hamas political bureau member Suhail al-Hindi told Al Jazeera television that the group's senior leadership had survived the attack.
A senior Israeli official said on Wednesday that optimism about the results of the strike had turned to doubt. The fact that so many hours have passed without a clear conclusion is troubling, especially in a country as orderly as Qatar, the official said.
Qatar, which said one of its security forces was killed in the attack, has called Israel treacherous and involved in "state terrorism." Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said the airstrikes threatened to derail peace talks brokered by Qatar between Hamas and Israel.
The airstrike followed Israel's warning to Palestinians to leave Gaza City, an area once home to about a million people, in an effort to destroy the remnants of Hamas, which has been crushed by the Israeli military since October 2023.
US President Donald Trump said he was "very unhappy with every aspect" of the of the Israeli strike.
When asked how the strike on Qatar, which failed to kill Hamas' leadership, would affect the ceasefire talks, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Reuters:
"The honest answer is we just don't know. Hamas has rejected everything so far. They have consistently rejected every proposal that has been put on the table."
He went on to reiterate the U.S. and Israeli position that Hamas militants "must go" and should have no future in governing Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing for an "all or nothing" deal that would mean the immediate release of all hostages and the surrender of Hamas.
Trump said he considered the target of the strike on Hamas to be worthy but felt bad that the attack was carried out in the Gulf Arab state, which is a key non-NATO ally of Washington and where the Palestinian Islamist group has long had its political base.
Qatar hosts the Al-Udeid Air Base, the largest US military installation in the Middle East.