Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli Prime Minister, expressed his "deep regret" over Tel Aviv’s killing of the son of a Hamas leader in a strike on Doha, according to Arabic and Hebrew media reports.
The reports state that Olmert told Al-Jazeera that the attack on the Qatari capital caused "significant political and moral damage," noting that the Hamas leader, Khalil al-Hayya’s wife was also wounded.
Hebrew news sites quoted Olmert as saying that "the child should not be a victim. We are fighting terrorism and perpetrators will be punished in due course. But it is a different matter when it comes to their families".
He reportedly added that "the injury of al-Hayya’s wife represents an additional tragic dimension to this operation".
He further noted that the timing of the Israeli attack coincided with leaders meeting in Doha to discuss the terms for a Gaza ceasefire agreement, with Olmert stating that "targeting the son of a member of the negotiating team is a clear declaration of unwillingness to reach any agreement".
The attack on Doha on 9 September garnered international condemnation, with leaders around the world denouncing Israel’s actions and vowing solidarity and support with Qatar.
Reports said that Olmert called the Israeli strike "reckless," and that it caused a "disastrous outcome," adding that Israel could have targeted Hamas "at another time and place".
"The operation did not achieve any real strategic gain but rather strengthened Hamas’ position in the eyes of international public opinion," he added.
According to Hebrew media, Israel’s Channel 12 asked Olmert if his comments were taken out of context, to which he responded: "I don’t think it’s rigjt to eliminate family members of terrorists".
"All members of the Hamas negotiating team are terrorists and therefore mortal. I would have eliminated them—but not during negotiations, and not in Qatar, which assists in these talks," he continued.
The strike killed six people in Doha, and struck at 4pm local time, in a densely populated area with schools and residential blocks nearby.
Qatar lambasted the attack as a "flagrant violation of sovereignty" and an "act of state terror," however Israel’s intended targets were not killed in the attack.
This is not the first time Olmert has criticised Israel’s policy and aggression in Gaza.
He previously called Israel’s plans to forcibly displace the enclave’s population into restricted zones "concentration camps" and said that if Palestinians were expelled there it would amount to "ethnic cleansing".
He has also accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a "private war," for his own "political considerations" and said that Israel was committing war crimes in an op-ed published in May.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed over 64,000 Palestinians since October 2023 and plunged the enclave into a deep humanitarian crisis. The war has been determined to be a genocide by leading rights groups, including Amnesty International.