Global News Podcast - Hamas claims leadership survived Israeli attack in Doha

Episode Date: September 10, 2025

The Qatari prime minister has denounced Israel's attack on Hamas leaders in his country as 'treacherous', saying it was aimed at sabotaging Gaza ceasefire talks. Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani added that the United States -- an ally -- had informed Qatar of the Israeli strikes ten minutes after they began. Hamas said five of its members had been killed, but it said the attempt to assassinate its negotiating team had failed. Also: ICC hears war crimes case against Ugandan rebel leader, Joseph Kony, and scientists warn polar "geoengineering" projects won't protect environment against climate change. The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

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It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatton, and in the early hours of Wednesday, the 10th of September, these are our main stories. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he ordered the strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar's capital, Doha.

But Hamas claims its leadership. team survived. The International Criminal Court has opened its war crimes case against Joseph Conier, the leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. Also in this podcast, The Earth's Poles are melting and melting fast, and for some researchers desperate times call for desperate measures. But now, polar scientists are warning that new controversial approaches to fighting climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic are dangerous and unlikely to work. We begin in Doha, the capital of the Gulf State of Qatar.

Where explosions were heard on the ground on Tuesday, Sharmie, a Philippine woman, was close to the building in Doha, targeted by Israel. I was in my room, and then I heard a loud bang three times before I go outside. And then I go outside, so a lot of birds on the sky coming from the other side. I was really nervous. I locked the door because I'm alone. So I lock everything. I'm scared. Shortly afterwards, Israel said it carried out a strike targeting the senior leadership of Hamas. They're said to have been holding a meeting to discuss the latest Gaza ceasefire

proposal. Qatar has served as a mediator in talks between Israel and Hamas, and the group's exiled leadership has been based there for many years. It was then reported that Khalil Ahayah, the Hamas leader and chief negotiator, was among those targeted. Hamas later said five of its members had been killed, but it said the attempt to assassinate its negotiating team had failed. The White House has told the BBC that the United States was notified of the attack. Then, a few hours later, speaking at an event in the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had this to say. On this day, as in previous day, Israel acted wholly independently,

wholly independently, and we take full responsibility for this action. And this action can open the door to an end of the war, end of the war in Gaza. I spoke to our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams, who's in Jerusalem, and asked what exactly do we know about the Israeli strike on Doha? We know that it was carried out by Israel. We know that it involved almost certainly air strikes involving a number of Israeli aircraft, firing a number of projectiles at a single building known to be the place where Hamas officials gather. Beyond that, it starts to get pretty murky.

You know, at what point was the White House informed? It was informed at some point just before. but we don't know exactly at what point. Did the Trump administration have an opportunity to say no to this operation but decided not to do that? That is a major question that many in the region are asking. And of course, crucially, how successful in Israeli terms was it? I had a statement from Hamas in which they have included a list of the people killed

and it does not include any of the senior leaders that the Israelis have been talking about. It includes Khalil al-Haya and indeed his son and a number of other officials, but nobody of any great consequence. That is clearly not what Israel thinks has happened. It thinks that this is a major and significant blow to Hamas, which is why, perhaps, Benjamin Netanyahu has addressed his remarks to the people of Gaza, essentially saying, look, I've done you a favor, I've gotten rid of these people. Now it's up to you to accept the terms of a ceasefire.

agreement, the latest terms put forward by the Americans. Incidentally, in that same speech, Mr. Netanyahu also said that Israel has accepted those proposals. And it is, of course, worth noting that those Hamas officials who had gathered in Doha, we presume, were discussing precisely this question, whether or not to say yes or no to the latest set of American proposals. And a strike on Qatar, which was hosting negotiations, a huge, red line crossed here. Can you put that into context for us? Yeah, and this is a major moment. As you say, Qatar has played this very important role,

hosting the negotiations, playing a vital role as a mediator over the last two years. The presence of Hamas, an organization regarded not just by Israel, but the United States and many other countries, including Britain, as a terrorist organization, that presence in Qatar has always been an awkward one, but it is one that it has been told. tolerated by everyone, including Israel, who allowed and indeed encouraged Qatar to funnel money to Hamas for years and years and years before the attacks of October the 7th, perhaps believing that Hamas could somehow be bought off. So, you know, it was always an awkward thing, but everyone involved had come to rely on the presence of Hamas in Qatar and the role of the Qatar authorities to try and find some way out of the current crisis. And that goes some way to explaining why the Qataris are so incandescent with rage at what has happened today. And just briefly, Paul, I mean, if Hamas is telling the truth and many of its top leaders are still alive and well,

did Israel make a huge miscalculation in all this? Well, if it emerges that they did not kill the senior leadership, then, yes, you could argue that this was a kind of mistake because it crossed all sorts of diplomatic red lines. sent shockwaves across the Arab world. It is annoyed the Americans. All of this would have been a price worth paying in Israel, in the eyes of the Israeli government, had it achieved the effect of decapitating the Hamas leadership. If it has not the damage done to Israel around the region and its diplomatic relations and its relationship with Washington, in all sorts of ways, it might be seen as having been a gamble that simply did not pay off.

But we simply have to wait to find out exactly what happened. Paul Adams in Jerusalem. Of course, the United States is a key player in all of this. And also, against this background, Qatar hosts the region's largest U.S. military hub, Alludeid Base, containing 10,000 troops. In Washington, the White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt gave more details about Tuesday's Doha attack. This morning, the Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas, which very unfortunately was located in a section of Doha,

the capital of Qatar. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals. However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited the misery of those living in Gaza is a worthy goal. President Trump immediately directed Special Envoy Whitkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack. President Trump wants all of the hostages in Gaza and the bodies of the dead release in this war to end now. President Trump believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace.

Caroline Levitt. I spoke to our North America correspondent Peter Bowes. So the Doha attack is posing some diplomatic challenges for the U.S. president. There's a very clear disapproval of what's happened from President Trump. And that's very apparent in this statement when we hear that the president feels very badly about the attack. And it was very clear from what the press secretary was saying. that Donald Trump found out about this from the U.S. military as the strikes were underway, although we should say that the timeline, the sequence of events that led to the U.S. being informed, and exactly how that happened, is still quite unclear.

But in terms of tone, interesting, just listening to that statement, again, it appears as if the president is trying to set himself up as the mediator in this situation, that while clearly disapproving, and he's expanded a little bit on this on truth, social, suggesting that as soon as he knew about it, he tried to take measures by instructing the special envoy Steve Whitkoff to inform the Qataris about the impending attack, but that it was too late to stop it. And then, again, moving on to talk about the peace process, although at this stage, this moment it seems difficult really to talk about a peace process, but the president, again, seemingly wanting to move forward as if the peace process isn't entirely dead.

I mean, it does call into question who's really in the driving seat here, doesn't it? I mean, the White House has confirmed to the BBC that the U.S. was notified of the attack, not consulted, but notified. I mean, what does that say about the relationship between the United States and Israel? Well, it's still unclear what that means, notified. Who notified? What was the process? What was the role of the Pentagon? What was the role, if any, of Israel? But to your broader point, yes, the events of the last.

few hours do suggest that Israel is in the driving seat for better or worse and in many respects for worse. As far as this president is concerned, this isn't the direction that he wants to see the peace process moving in. And it's difficult to see, especially again from the Israeli perspective, how they envision any future peace process and especially a ceasefire in the wake of what's happened in terms of this attempt to eliminate Hamas. And yet again, Donald Trump finds himself in the middle of it, but seemingly powerless to really determine events hour by hour. Peter Bose.

Qatar has gone on to condemn the strike by Israel as reckless and cowardly. The Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister is Mohamed bin al-Durachman al-Thani. The attack happened at 3.46. the first call we had from an American official was at 3.56, which is 10 minutes after the attack. And after that, President Trump has spoken with His Highness the Emir. He condemned the attack. The U.S. government position that they have no knowledge about the attack nor any coordination about it until it started to happen. Our correspondent Azaday Moshei sent this report from Doha.

This is the closest we could get to. The place where those explosions happened, the strike happened. And that's because there is a heavy police presence. Many roads have been cordoned off. And there are also multiple helicopters that have been circulating. That's because this is a residential area that also hosts multiple embassies, the embassy of Ukraine. There's a sign for that behind me as well. The Qatari Interior Ministry has been saying is that this is safe now.

This is a safe city. And they have reason to want to reassure residents that this will. was a strike specifically on one of the headquarters of Hamas leaders in Doha. Because the people that we've been speaking to are stunned. They can't believe that this has happened in Doha. Israel is saying that it took measures to mitigate any harm to civilians. But one man we spoke to said that what it feels like to him is that the entire Middle Eastern neighborhood, in his words, is now at risk.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez said the strike was, a flagrant violation of territorial integrity. Saudi Arabia described it as a criminal act, and Turkey accused Israel of expansionist policies and terrorism. For an Israeli point of view, Shanley spoke to Dor Harlep, chair of Zionist Horizon and a member of the Lakud Central Committee. Does he think there's a risk in this attack on Doha, given the role Qatar had been playing in facilitating the negotiations to try and bring Israel's hostages home from Gaza. I believe that this strike today has a very specific message to all the people of the world that if you are part of who has been planned or being part of the execution of

humans, of crimes against humanity like they have been doing, Kamats have been doing in October 7, 2003, there is no place under the sky that you will be safe. Does that mean then that it is not possible to negotiate with these groups, that you cannot have negotiations indirect or direct? Because in the past, Israel, as the Qataris say, said to the country, said to Qatar, please will you host these people so the negotiations can take place? Please will you play a mediating role? America too said that about Hamas.

Did he had about the Taliban beforehand? Are you saying now that from now on Israel will not have done? direct or indirect talks with people who have been involved in what you call terrorism? It's not only me calling that terrorism. I believe this is a very, not something that we should be arguing about. It's not an argument, it's a question. Yeah. So the things like that, okay? We have seen until now that the people who have been hiding in Qatar didn't lead us to any better deals or better situation in Gaza. they're only holding our hostages more firmly, okay, and not willing to compromise.

But negotiation did lead to release of some hostages, more hostages than the Israeli military has been able to free. In different situations, okay, in different timings. There was different, and the first days when President Trump has been inaugurated, there was a different climate in the situation. and now we see that the things is pretty stuck, and I believe that the leaders of the state of Israel have seen that those people in Qatar

that have been hiding over there didn't help us to get into anything better, anything more advanced in the negotiations. So now it's their time to go, okay? Dor Harlap, a member of the Lekud Central Committee, speaking to Sean Leigh. And now to other news, the International Criminal Court has begun

hearing a war crimes case against the notorious notorious Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Konya. He's accused of a long list of crimes at the ICC, including murder, abduction, and forcing thousands of children to fight as soldiers in his brutal Lord's Resistance army. In an ICC first, the accused Joseph Konya was not there to hear the charges against him. He's a fugitive who's managed to evade capture for the past 20 years. The court heard chilling accounts of atrocities by Joseph Konya. Leonie von Braun is an ICC prosecutor. All his essential contributions are directly linked to the attacks on the IDP camps, the abduction and enslavement of people, and the use of children in hostilities. Throughout the

charged period, Mr. Koyne regularly issued orders to LRA commanders to attack, kill, mistreat civilians. Our correspondent in the Hague, Anna Holligan, told me more about him. And a warning. Some people may find some of the details here disturbing. He has been one of Africa's most wanted fugitives ever since this ICC arrest warrant was issued two decades ago. If you search engine his name, the words child kidnapper, warlord and profit are among those that come up. And here's why. So Joseph Coney is the founder and leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. more commonly known as the LRA, he said he wanted to install a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments and he was fighting for the rights of the Acholi people in northern Uganda.

But his rebel fighters were absolutely notorious for hacking off their victims' limbs or parts of their faces. You may have seen some of those images. The ICC's put together a list of 39 charges, among them murder, sexual enslavement, rape, torture. And as you you said, forcibly recruiting children to fight as soldiers in his rebel ranks. According to the prosecution, his forces systematically abducted civilians, targeting children working fields are on their way to school and forced women and girls into sexual slavery. Anna, why has the court decided to proceed with this case in his absence?

As I said, he's been on the run for 20 years. What sort of precedence does this set? Well, it's a first for the ICC. So this is a real historic moment. The in absentia hearing allows the ICC to formally present evidence. And if the judges agree that there is enough of that evidence, have everything ready to go straight to trial. But perhaps of wider global significance, especially right now, is the precedent this set. So it's almost like a test case for pursuing high profile fugitives who are unlikely to be arrested anytime soon, such as for example. example, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, or Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom are wanted by the ICC. So it's strategic, it's symbolic, this is the ICC, signaling that evading capture will not indefinitely block justice, or at least not these early pretrial stages. Anna Holligan. Polar scientists from the University of Exeter in England are warning that new controversial approaches to fighting climate change

in the Arctic and Antarctic are dangerous and unlikely to work. They say what are known as geoengineering techniques, which include efforts to re-freeze the Arctic, could distract from the urgent need to move away from fossil fuels. Our climate reporter, Mark Pointing, has more. The Earth's poles are melting and melting fast, and for some researchers, desperate times, call for desperate measures. Radical ideas include artificially thickening Arctic sea ice

by pumping seawater over its surface in winter, or releasing tiny reflective particles into the atmosphere. Supporters argue that more research into geoengineering would help society to decide whether it could help. But dozens of polar scientists have made up their minds. Writing in the journal frontiers in science, they warn these methods are unlikely to work and could have unforeseen consequences for weather patterns and the environment. The lead author Martin Siegert, Professor of Geosciences at the University of Exeter, says that countries should simply focus on reducing emissions, the root cause of climate change. We don't think the polar geoengineering ideas are viable. We don't think that they are feasible, i.e. they won't work. We don't think

they can be afforded. They'll cost too much money. There's no governance at all to support them. But the very fact that geoengineering is being considered by some highlights the failure to get climate change under control so far and many scientists fears for the planet's future. Mark pointing. Still to come, good news for those who have concerns about driving electric vehicles with short-life batteries. A Chinese company is offering hope.

They're offering particularly fast-charging but also longer range battery pack. America is changing, and so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection. where the world and America meet.

Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. Next to Nepal. There have been arson attacks in several cities in the country as anti-corruption protests there escalate. The Prime Minister has already resigned amid public outrage over the killing on Monday of 19 of the protesters. Here's Electron Naismith. The resignation of Kenysmith.

K-P Sharma Oli appears to have done little to calm protesters. Demonstrators broke into Nepal's sprawling seat of government in the capital, ransacking officers and setting fire to the Parliament building. Homes of political leaders and party officers have been targeted in Kathmandu, Pokera and Dengadi. Hundreds of inmates were freed from a prison in Kailali after protesters there took it over. Nepal's army has urged restraint and called for national unity, but the Gen Z movement seemed in no mood to compromise.

on their call for government reform and accountability. Eleanor Nesmith. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, says a Russian airstrike on a village in the east of the country has killed more than 20 people. He said many others were injured during the attack on the village of Yarova, about 10 kilometers from the current front line. Rahul Tandon spoke to Vitali Shibchenko,

the Russia editor for BBC monitoring, who gave more details of the Russian air strike. people who got killed were queuing up to get their pensions, so mostly elderly. And the reason why they had to queue up for their pensions is because that village is really close to the front line. So no banks, no infrastructure. And those, they're mostly elderly ladies. They couldn't leave. They were too infirm to leave. So the way it works, the Ukrainian postal service, Okroposte, dispatches a very... van, full of cash, they queue up, they get their pensions, they spend them, and Russia targeted

that queue. Even though the distinctive white and yellow Ukrapostovan was so easy to see, I presume it wasn't difficult to see that those people were elderly pensioners, 24 did. Vitaly, we had that attack over the weekend, right at the heart, didn't we, of the Ukrainian government as well. Now we have this attack that you have so vividly described. What is the sense in Ukraine then? Are they expecting more these attacks to intensify even more? They're getting worse and the

sense in Ukraine is that of betrayal by Ukraine's allies who taught the talk, but so far have been unable, possibly some of them, unwilling, uninteresting. Which one do you think of it?

Well, of course there are people at the top echelons of power in the West who would want this to end. Donald Trump, he keeps saying, I want this to end. The fact is not enough of them are prepared to spend enough money and possibly take difficult decisions involving the deployment of Western troops to Ukraine to make the stop.

Because Vladimir Putin, clearly what this is telling us is that he has absolutely no intent to de-escalate his appetites are still the same as they were. And after all the summits, after all the talks in Turkey, America, Moscow, I have to say he has very little to worry about. That's why on Sunday he dispatched the highest ever number of drones to attack Ukraine, 810. That's why that bomb hit that queue in Danyetsk region.

And Vladimir Putin, he is absolutely unconcerned. Switching gears now to a problem that's been challenging car makers for years, energy transfer and storage. It's a particular problem for those who are trying to get us to switch to vehicles with electric engines. There are two primary concerns. How far can we drive our electric vehicles before we run out of power? And when that happens, how long does it take to charge the battery back up again? Well, the world's biggest manufacturer of EV batteries, China's CATL, has unveiled two new batteries that it thinks might go a long way to easing those concerns. Will Bain heard more from the energy storage expert, Dr. Andy Leach.

So there's actually two announcements here. There's the super long life and long range battery, and there's the super fast charging battery that they've announced. They're using those names as they've been quoted by CATL. The super long life and long range battery has up to 758 kilometres of range with a 12-year or million kilometre lifespan, which is really, really sort of pushing the bounds of what consumers are going to want and need. And the super fast charging battery has a slightly shorter range of just under 500 kilometres, but it can charge its battery in 10 minutes, adding 0.8 kilometers per second when it's at its peak charging and still with a reasonably long range.

So this is addressing some of the big concerns around consumers where people want long ranges. They're worried about they have range anxiety and one of the challenges is maybe having a long range. The other is speeding up the charging time so that when you do stop, you're not stopping for so long. And I asked this with slight trepidation because you're right, right, this is the kind of golden goose, isn't it, that all battery makers are trying to do and all the car companies want their batteries to be able to do. So what have in the simplest terms possible? What have what have CATL managed to do that others haven't to allow it to do those two different things? So CATL have been, I'd say, incrementally improving their offering over the last

couple of years, they've been offering new sort of versions of this Shenzhenzing battery since 2023. One of the key benefits that they've done is they're doing this with the cheaper lithium ion phosphate technology. So this is a less expensive than some of the more nickel and cobalt containing batteries, which historically have been used and more in EVs in Europe and North America. So they're sort of using a technology that's been mainly developed in China. They're expanding it into the European market, which is something that's happening very rapidly in the last couple of years. And yeah, they're offering particularly fast charging, also longer range battery pack. So great news for those kind of slightly beleaguered European car

makers, particularly the big ones in Germany to help them be more competitive in a space where they've kind of lost out to the Chinese car makers. What about what it means for European battery makers and the battery sector itself? Because that's something the German leader, Friedrich Merz, has been talking about. For sure. So just to touch on that first point quickly, so CATL already have companies such as Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, Stalantis, Volvo and Mercedes as their customers. So these manufacturers that produce and sell cars in Europe are going to be benefiting from this technology, which is really being marketed at the European industry. In their press release, you can see comments about being specifically tailored to the European leasing market.

So, yeah, as you say, this is a really good opportunity for those players to get their hands on some of the best batteries in the world. However, if you're a battery manufacturer in the region, this is a challenge for an already challenging industry. We've seen companies such as North Volt, British Volk running into a lot of trouble in the last few years and sort of going into bankruptcy. This continued technological development from the incumbents like CATL in this announcement. And earlier this year, we saw BYD making an announcement on a fast charging battery, also Chinese-based company, is really moving the goalpost for people trying to build things locally. Dr. Andy Leach. Well, let's end with our main story, the Israeli strike in the Qatari capital, Doha,

targeting the senior Hamas leadership that had been meeting there. So where does this all lead to in the long term? I spoke to our security correspondent Frank Gardner, and I asked him what Israel's attack in Qatar will do to its relationships in the region. I think one of the big questions is whether the Abraham Accords can survive. These were brokered primarily by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, and this saw United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and Morocco all establishing full normal diplomatic relations with Israel. And despite the carnage that has ensued from the atrocities of October the 7th, 2023, with the Hamas-led raid out of Gaza into Israel, despite that, and all the 60,000-plus deaths reported from Gaza, those Abraham Accords have so far managed to survive, those governments in Abu Dhabi, in Manama, in Rabat, have decided that their relations with Israel are too important to cut off.

But this is going to put them under severe strain. I'm not so far hearing anything immediately that they're about to break it off, but it will be very unpopular with their populations that they still have full diplomatic relations with a country that is prepared to, in their eyes, sling its weight around the region in the way that Israel has been doing because this is very different from retaliating, say, against the Houthis in Yemen, who keep firing missiles at Israel, or

Hezbollah, for example, in Lebanon, who were firing a lot of missiles at northern Israel. Qatar has never attacked Israel. Qatar is supposed to be a neutral country, so the region is pretty angry about this and it also calls into question the US here, because

it's not possible that the Israeli F-35s could have carried out this raid without notifying the U.S. in advance because otherwise they'd have been shot out of the air by U.S. Air Defense at Al-Udaid at the air base in Qatar. Frank Gardner. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Post. podcast at BBC.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag

Global NewsPod. This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll. The producers were Liam McSheffery and Stephen Jensen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye.