The Middle East is on the brink after shock strike

Completely unprecedented. This was the two-word description voiced to me by a shocked diplomat in the Middle East in the immediate aftermath of Israel's extraordinary missile strike on Qatar yesterday afternoon.

- BEL TREW

This is a corner of the world that has weathered shock after shock over the last 23 months, a region repeatedly on the brink of protracted and dangerous total war.

But Israeli strikes in the heart of the Qatari capital, which the Israeli military said were targeting Hamas leadership even as truce talks were allegedly underway, push it to the very edge of an abyss. These strikes set Israel firmly against Qatar, a regional player and the chief mediator in the peace talks for Gaza and beyond.

They make Doha – once a main meeting point and venue for truce negotiations – now a new theatre of war in the Gaza conflict.

In fact, they dashed hopes for ceasefire talks anywhere: the Israeli military declined to officially comment on who exactly the target was, or whether anyone had been killed.

However, Israeli media, citing government sources, said the focus was on top Hamas negotiators and leaders, including Khalil al-Hayya, Zaher Jabarin, Khaled Meshaal and Mohammad Darwish. Hamas said five of its members were killed, but none of those in the negotiating team.