Sen. Steve Daines, is heading to Israel, and he says the country’s recent strike in Qatar was part of its “singular purpose” to eradicate Hamas. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) recently announced a strike on senior Hamas leadership, but instead of being in Gaza, the attack took place over 1,300 miles away in Doha, Qatar.
The Qatari government, a key player in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, has condemned the attack as a “criminal attack” and a “flagrant violation of all international laws and norms”. According to Fox, Daines, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, isn’t having any of it. He compared Hamas to a “cancer” that needs to be eradicated.
He even went so far as to put the situation in perspective for Americans. In a hypothetical situation, he said that if “1,200 innocent Americans [were] slaughtered by terrorists 40 miles from Washington, D.C.,” the U.S. would do everything in its power to “eradicate the threat”. To be fair, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable perspective, but under Trump, U.S. tends to do whatever it wants regardless of what other countries think.
Hamas is not happy with Israel’s attacks
In a recent interview, Daines told Fox News Digital that it “doesn’t matter where these leaders are” and that Israel will “come after them”. He likened the strike in Qatar to the U.S. going after Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, saying, “We didn’t ask Pakistan for permission”. While the Qatari government has condemned the strike as an attack on its sovereignty and a threat to its security, it’s clear that Daines stands by Israel’s decision to act.
Qatar has even called the attack “state terrorism” and a “blatant violation of international law,” but the bottom line is that Israel is doing what it has to do to protect itself. The IDF said the strike was intended to target senior Hamas officials who were considering the latest U.S. ceasefire proposal. The attack hit a residential complex in Doha.
'We will make no distinction between the terrorists and the people that harbor them". The Bin Laden take down is a direct parallel to the strike on #Hamas leaders in Qatar today. Both strikes were just as both targeted those who murdered of thousands of innocent civilians.
— Dean Del Mastro (@delmastrodean) September 10, 2025
It’s a complicated situation, especially since Qatar is a close U.S. ally and hosts the largest military base in the Middle East. However, Daines pointed out that “Hamas, clearly, is trying to evade the reach of the Israeli government”. When asked if he was worried the strike could derail ceasefire talks, Daines said he appreciated Qatar’s cooperation but reiterated that Hamas is trying to evade Israel’s reach.
Following the attack, Trump told reporters that he was “not thrilled” about the situation and was “very unhappy about every aspect“. He also said that he believed the “unfortunate incident” could serve as an “opportunity for PEACE,” and that he assured Qatar’s leader that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil”. It seems that while the U.S. is trying to maintain a peaceful relationship with its allies, Israel will do what it needs to do to get rid of Hamas.
As Daines said, “And as we say, ‘Sometimes you can run, but you can’t hide,’ and Israel had to make a decision, knowing that, like they did with Iran, where they took out military leadership, they took out their nuclear scientists, because they could not allow Iran to get into their bomb,'” and Israel had to make a decision. Similarly, with Hamas, he said they would have to take out their “command and control structure, leadership”.
