How Trump used fury over Israel's Qatar attack to push Netanyahu on Gaza

Hamas has agreed to some elements of the proposal by Trump to end the war in Gaza, but it's not clear if its conditions would ultimately satisfy the White House or Israel.

- Mark Mazzetti, Adam Rasgon, Katie Rogers and Luke Broadwater

The Israeli jets over the Red Sea launched a volley of missiles that arced high into the atmosphere and came down on a residential neighbourhood in Doha, Qatar, where Hamas representatives were discussing the possibility of a plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip.

The Sept 9 strike was a stunning provocation by Israel - negotiation by bombing the negotiators. Even more than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's other aggressive acts in the Middle East over the past year, this one so rankled government officials both in the region and in Washington that it threatened to blow up the prospects for a ceasefire.

But 20 days later, Mr Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump stood together at the White House, declaring support for a plan that could end the nearly two-year-old war.

Mr Trump, with typical hyperbole, labelled it "a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilisation". Mr Netanyahu, more cautious, said the proposal "achieves our war aims".

The brazen Israeli attack failed to kill its targets. But it motivated an angry Mr Trump and his advisers to pressure Mr Netanyahu into supporting a framework for ending the war, after months in which the President appeared to have given the Israeli leader a free pass to continue assaulting Hamas even as the death toll and suffering among Palestinian civilians rose to levels that left Israel increasingly isolated.

The plan got a boost on the night of Oct 3 when Hamas said it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages held in Gaza as well as the bodies of those who had died, in response to the peace proposal introduced by Mr Trump.

But the question is whether Hamas' response, in the end, will satisfy Israel and the White House. The statement, for example, did not address key elements of the US proposal that called on the group to give up its arms, which has been a major demand of Israel.