On September 9, 2025, a thunderous explosion shattered the quiet of a Doha neighborhood, sending shockwaves far beyond Qatar’s capital. The Israeli airstrike, ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, targeted the political offices of Hamas—designated as a terrorist group by the US and the EU—at a time when the region was already simmering with tension. The attack killed six people, including a Qatari security agent, but failed to eliminate the Hamas leaders it sought. In the aftermath, the reverberations have been felt across the Middle East, exposing rifts, upending alliances, and raising urgent questions about the future of regional security.
According to The Guardian, the strike took place just down the road from a palace recently visited by Donald Trump during his May 2025 tour of the region—a trip that also included a stop at the US airbase in Qatar. The symbolism wasn’t lost on Gulf rulers, who had long believed their close ties with Washington and the presence of the Al Udeid airbase—the largest American military installation in the Middle East—would shield them from such attacks. That assumption, it seems, has been upended.
Qatar, a wealthy Gulf monarchy and a major non-NATO ally of the United States, has played a key role in regional diplomacy. For years, Doha sent cash into Gaza, with US and Israeli approval, in an effort to stabilize the territory. But after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023—which left approximately 1,200 people dead and dozens of Israeli hostages still unaccounted for—Israeli officials began to reframe Qatar’s involvement as enabling Hamas, stoking frustration and suspicion toward their erstwhile partner.
The September 9 strike, however, was not just another episode in Israel’s long campaign of pre-emptive and extraterritorial operations. Over the past two years, Israel has launched strikes in six countries—including Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Palestine—in an effort to eradicate threats and demonstrate its refusal to separate diplomacy from military coercion. But targeting Doha, the site of sensitive negotiations between Israel and Hamas at Washington’s behest, marked a fundamental shift.
As Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, the attack has been widely condemned in Gulf capitals, where attitudes toward Israel have already soured after the direct conflict with Iran in June and the ongoing devastation in Gaza. Michael Horowitz, an independent analyst based in Israel, observed, “We’re witnessing both a hardening of public opinion in the Gulf and growing unease among Gulf leaders over the perception that Israel is now acting without restraint—ignoring red lines that were once respected.”
The implications for the US are profound. For years, Washington has sought to convince Arab Gulf countries that normalization with Israel would bring stability and help contain Iran. But the September 9 attack has threatened to unravel those painstaking efforts. As Horowitz put it, “This situation is distinct in one key respect: Israel is a close US ally. That changes the calculus. For Gulf leaders, the real concern may not be Israel alone, but the perceived absence of US leadership in setting limits or enforcing consequences.”
Indeed, for Gulf rulers, the message was clear. According to The Guardian, the strike “challenges their longstanding assumption that US relations and military bases would protect them from attacks.” The sense of security that once came from American guarantees now seems less certain. Memories are still fresh of the 2019 Iranian drone and missile attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities, which US defenses failed to stop. Today, with Washington unwilling or unable to restrain Israel, Gulf states are increasingly questioning the reliability of their American partner.
The fallout has been swift. Experts cited by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty noted that the attack strengthens Iran’s narrative that Israel, not just Tehran, is a threat to the entire region. Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, explained, “What happened strengthens Iran’s narrative that Israel is a threat to the whole region and has nothing to do with [Tehran] and its allies in the axis of resistance.” The so-called axis of resistance—comprising Iran’s regional network of proxies and armed groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and Yemen’s Huthi rebels—has long been at odds with Israel and the US. Now, the Qatar attack could help deepen Iran’s rapprochement with Gulf states, which have previously had hostile relations with Tehran.
But the strike also raises the threat perception on the Iranian side. “That, if this is happening to Qatar, which is a major non-NATO ally of the US, then what is going to happen to us?” Azizi asked. The memory of the 12-day June war, when Israel and the US targeted Iranian nuclear and military sites—killing about 1,000 people and prompting Iranian missile barrages that killed several dozen in Israel—remains fresh. The cease-fire that followed is fragile, and the risk of renewed hostilities hovers ominously over the region.
For Arab states, the attack on Doha has forced a reckoning. As The Guardian observed, “Arab states are concluding that Israel is now the biggest threat to stability in the region.” This is not to excuse Iran’s behavior—its role in fueling conflict in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen remains undeniable—but Israel’s unchecked campaigns in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, and now Qatar have pushed Gulf leaders to reconsider their priorities.
In practical terms, the attack is likely to accelerate a strategic realignment. Gulf leaders are expected to deepen cooperation among themselves, diversify their foreign and security partnerships, strengthen economic ties with China, expand defense cooperation with Turkey, and reassess the uncertain prospects of normalization with Israel. The Abraham Accords and other normalization efforts, once seen as a path to managing regional security, now appear increasingly unviable as violence in Gaza and elsewhere continues unabated.
Public opinion in the Gulf has also hardened. The perception that Israel is acting without restraint, and that the US is unwilling to enforce limits, has made the already delicate task of balancing relations with Israel and the US against domestic opinion and regional sensitivities far more difficult for Gulf rulers. As The Guardian put it, the attack “may ultimately prove a watershed moment, crystallizing the sense that the traditional regional order is disintegrating and that the sovereignty of partners has too often been sacrificed in the name of security.”
For now, the region waits anxiously. With the cease-fire between Israel and Iran still fragile, and the risk of escalation ever-present, the September 9 strike in Doha stands as a stark reminder that the old rules no longer apply. Whether Gulf states can forge a new path to security—or whether the region will spiral further into instability—remains to be seen.
