There is still confusion about the ultimate result of Israel’s strike in Doha, which struck a meeting of Hamas leaders. Israeli government sources have said they are “not optimistic” about having decapitated the terror chiefs. Qatar and the allies it pays for are moaning about Israel’s “war crime.” Two things to note:

• Even if Hamas leaders survived, they are now aware that there is no safe haven. The rules have changed.
• If you didn’t wail about France’s strike in Mali that killed 16 people at a wedding, or the US strikes against Osama bin Laden and Qassem Soleimani, don’t start now. It is not a violation of international law to strike terrorists hiding in third countries – the third countries assumed the risk; Qatar rather publicly.

Equally important, consider the strikes in relation to the condition of Palestinians actually living in Gaza — imprisoned there by the “leaders” living in the luxury of Qatar. Check voices NOT funded by Qatar.

Start with Kareem Jouda, a Palestinian resident of Gaza, posting on X:

What makes me happiest about what happened in Doha is that the Qataris and those living there have tasted, even for a moment, what is called the “fire belt” — those successive explosions that we lived through every day.

I am glad the fire has reached Qatar. For two whole years, the media backed by Doha did nothing but silence my voice, promote the war, support its continuation, and give legitimacy to the parties that destroyed our lives. They turned our blood into material for their propaganda shows, and our suffering into fuel for their false narratives.

He was talking about Hamas and rightly so. Early in the war, Moussa Abu Marzouk of Hamas’s “political bureau” was recorded by MEMRI.org:

We have built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being targeted and killed. These tunnels are meant to protect us from the airplanes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels. Everybody knows that 75% of the people in the Gaza Strip are refugees, and it is the responsibility of the United Nations to protect them. According to the Geneva Convention, it is the responsibility of the occupation to provide them with all the services as long as they are under occupation.

In other words, it’s not our problem if they die. The opposite. On Lebanese television, Ghazi Hamad, again of Hamas’s “political bureau,” said:

We will do this again and again. The Al-Aqsa Flood [the Oct. 7 atrocities] is just the first time, and there will be a second, a third, a fourth, because we have the determination, the resolve and the capabilities to fight. Will we have to pay a price? Yes, and we are ready to pay it. We are called a nation of martyrs, and we are proud to sacrifice martyrs.”

Not him, of course — Palestinians living above the massive Hamas tunnels in Gaza, more than 500 miles under mosques, schools, homes, and hospitals. Palestinians not permitted to leave the battle zone when Israel provided the warning and the means to escape. Palestinians deprived of food when Hamas stole international aid either to sell it at exorbitant prices or feed its terrorist troops.

All funded by Qatar.

Dahlia Ziada of The Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs points out on X:

Qatar’s Al Jazeera yesterday was celebrating the Jerusalem bus attack, and the leaders of Hamas residing in Doha made statements applauding the attack as “a heroic act” and calling for more similar attacks! If Qatar hosts Hamas terrorists, funds Hamas terrorist operations, whitewashes their crimes with its mighty media machine, and rigs “ceasefire deals” to throw them lifelines… Then, don’t preach sovereignty, now, or act surprised when the state you enabled these terrorists to attack responds inside your own territory.

Israel is the opposite of Hamas, which uses its own people as human shields. Perhaps because of that, 900 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza — as Bernard-Henry Levy wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “A genocidal army doesn’t take two years to win a war in a territory the size of Las Vegas.” John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute (MWI) at West Point, noted that:

Israel has taken extraordinary steps to limit civilian harm. It warns before attacks using text messages, phone calls, leaflets, and broadcasts. It opens safe corridors and pauses operations so civilians can leave combat areas. It tracks civilian presence down to the building level. I have seen missions delayed or canceled because children were nearby. I have seen Israeli troops come under fire and still be ordered not to shoot back because civilians might be harmed.

Are there Palestinians who sympathized with, worked with, and applauded Hamas and its atrocities? Yes, and they are paying. And there are Palestinians who did not; they are paying as well. But, in the end, the horror of October 7th is on Hamas. The horror of Palestinian civilian victimization is on Hamas. And Hamas will pay.

September 9th might have been Liberation Day for Kareem Jouda. If it wasn’t, one can pray it will come.