ANKARA, September 10. /TASS/. The team of Hamas negotiators survived yesterday’s Israeli attack in Qatar as Turkish intelligence alerted the delegation of a possible strike in advance, Turkiye reported, citing information from the radical Palestinian movement.

According to the Turkish newspaper, a special unit of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization monitored Israeli warplane activity throughout the day. The Israeli Air Force first struck a humanitarian flotilla in Tunisia, then carried out attacks on targets in Latakia and Tartus in Syria, as well as facilities in Lebanon. It was only after these strikes that "Hamas officials in Qatar were targeted."

Turkey’s intel officers notified the Hamas negotiators about the risk, leading to increased security measures for the Palestinian delegates in Doha. Therefore, the newspaper writes, the death of a majority of senior Hamas officials was prevented. However, several people, "including the head of [Hamas’s Gaza] office in Khalil al-Hayya and his son" were killed.

On September 9, a delegation of the Palestinian Hamas movement, which was participating in negotiations to resolve the conflict in the Gaza Strip, was attacked in Doha. Majed Mohammed Al-Ansari, advisor to the prime minister and the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, confirmed that Israel is responsible for the attack. According to the state’s Interior Ministry, a security officer was killed in the attack and several others were wounded. In turn, Hamas refuted media reports about the death of members of its negotiating team, confirming, however, that the attack killed six people, including the son of al-Hayya, a Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, and a Qatari security officer.