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Israel’s UN envoy defended targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar as the “right” decision on Wednesday, after the strikes on the US ally’s soil drew a rare rebuke from President Donald Trump.The White House said Trump did not agree with Israel’s decision to take military action on Tuesday and had warned Qatar in advance of the incoming strikes.But Qatar, which hosts a large US military base and has spearheaded repeated rounds of Gaza truce efforts, said it had not received the warning from Washington until the deadly attack was already under way.Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, sought to justify the decision, telling an Israeli radio station: “We don’t always act in the interests of the United States.””We are coordinated, they give us incredible support, we appreciate that, but sometimes we make decisions and inform the United States,” he said.”It was not an attack on Qatar; it was an attack on Hamas,” Danon told 103FM.Palestinian militant group Hamas said six people were killed in the strikes, including an aide and an adult son of its top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, as well as three bodyguards and a Qatari security officer.But the group said its senior leaders had survived, affirming “the enemy’s failure to assassinate our brothers in the negotiating delegation”.Danon said Israel was “still waiting for the results” of the operation.”It is too early to comment on the outcome, but the decision is the right one,” he added.According to sources close to Hamas, six Hamas leaders including Hayya and former top leader Khaled Meshaal were in the building targeted by Israel at the time of the strike. AFP has been unable to reach any of them since then.Qatar said the strikes targeted the homes of several members of Hamas’s political bureau residing in the Gulf country.- ‘Not thrilled’ -Trump said he was not notified in advance of the Israeli attack and was “not thrilled about the whole situation”.Speaking to reporters during a rare outing to a Washington restaurant, he said: “We want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today.”Qatar’s prime minister said it reserved the right to respond to the Israeli attack, which it said constituted a “pivotal moment” for region.Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed that Israel would “act against its enemies anywhere”.”There is no place where they can hide,” he wrote on X, adding that “everyone who took part in the October 7 massacre will be held fully accountable,” referring to Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the nearly two-year Gaza war.In a post on social media, Trump insisted that “this was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me”.”I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack,” he said, adding Hamas’s elimination was still a “worthy goal”.- ‘Grave violation’ – Russia and China meanwhile joined an international chorus of condemnation on Wednesday, with Moscow saying the operation undermined peace efforts in the Middle East.”Russia considers the incident a grave violation of international law… an encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent state, and a step leading to further escalation,” said Russia’s foreign ministry.Beijing expressed similar concerns and “dissatisfaction with actions by certain parties that undermine the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza”.Along with the United States and Egypt, Qatar has led multiple attempts to end the Israel-Hamas war and secure the release of the remaining hostages.Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 64,605 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday she would push to sanction “extremist” Israeli ministers and curb trade ties over the dire situation in Gaza.Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Saar, hit back, writing on X that Europe was sending “the wrong message that strengthens Hamas and the radical axis in the Middle East.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday the release of Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov who was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023.While Iraq said a “group of outlaws” kidnapped Tsurkov, Trump announced she was released by the powerful pro-Iran Kataeb Hezbollah group.”As a culmination of extensive efforts exerted by our security services over the course of many months, we announce the release of the Russian citizen, Elizabeth Tsurkov,” Sudani said on X. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Tsurkov “was just released” by Kataeb Hezbollah “after being tortured for many months” and was now at the US embassy in Baghdad.Sabah al-Numan, the military spokesman for the Iraqi prime minister, said later in a statement that “following extensive and high-level security and intelligence efforts… authorities succeeded, on September 9, in locating and reaching the site of her detention.”Tsurkov was delivered to the US embassy to “facilitate her reunion with her sister, a US citizen,” he added. The former captive’s sister, Emma Tsurkov, thanked Trump, his special envoy Adam Boehler, the US embassy in Baghdad and the non-profit group Global Reach for their roles in securing the release.”My entire family is incredibly happy. We cannot wait to see Elizabeth and give her all the love we have been waiting to share for 903 days,” she posted on social media.Tsurkov, a doctoral student at Princeton University and fellow at the Washington-based New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, went missing in Iraq in March 2023.She had likely entered Iraq on her Russian passport and had travelled to the country as part of her doctoral studies.Her research focused on the Levant, and she worked extensively on Syria during its civil war as well as on Iraq. She speaks English, Russian, Hebrew and Arabic.Numan said Tsurkov was kidnapped by a “group of outlaws” without naming any party, and added that Iraq’s security forces “will continue to pursue all those involved in this crime and ensure they are held accountable.”- ‘Peace through strength’ -In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release, saying US measures against hostage diplomacy played a key role.”Less than a week after @POTUS (Trump) signed an executive order to strengthen efforts against hostage diplomacy, Princeton student Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released,” Rubio wrote.”This is peace through strength in action,” he added, thanking Iraq’s Sudani for his support.Tsurkov was active on social media, with tens of thousands of followers on X. She describes herself as “passionate about human rights”.In Baghdad, she had focused on pro-Iran factions and the movement of Iraqi Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr as part of her research on the region.She was abducted as she was leaving a cafe in the Iraqi capital’s Karrada neighbourhood, an Iraqi intelligence source told AFP in 2023.Israeli authorities blamed Kataeb Hezbollah for her disappearance, but the group implied that it was not involved.- Kataeb Hezbollah? -Kataeb Hezbollah did not claim in 2023 the abduction, but a source in the group told AFP Tuesday Tsurkov was released to spare Iraq any “conflicts”.She “was released according to conditions, the most important of which was to facilitate the withdrawal of US forces without a fight and to spare Iraq any conflicts or fighting,” the source said.”She was released and not liberated. No military operation was carried out to free her,” the source added.Like other armed groups trained by Iran during the war against the Islamic State group (IS), Kataeb Hezbollah were integrated into the regular security forces as part of the Hashed al-Shaabi or the Popular Mobilisation force (PMF).However, the faction has developed a reputation for sometimes acting on its own.The group and other Iran-backed Iraqi factions have been calling for the withdrawal of US troops deployed in Iraq at Baghdad’s invitation as part of the anti-IS coalition. US forces in Iraq and neighbouring Syria were repeatedly targeted by Kataeb Hezbollah and other pro-Iran groups following the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.They have responded with heavy strikes on Tehran-linked targets, and the attacks have halted.The US and Iraq have announced that the anti-IS coalition would end its decade-long military mission in federal Iraq in 2025, and by September 2026 in the autonomous Kurdistan region in the country’s north.

A Syrian man was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for killing three people in an Islamist-motivated knife attack at a summer festival in the German city of Solingen last year.The court in Duesseldorf said Issa Al Hasan, 27, was a member of the Islamic State group and had acted out of “treacherous and base motives”.The stabbing spree in August 2024, in which another eight people were seriously wounded, took place on the opening night of a three-day “festival of diversity”.It was one of a series of attacks attributed to asylum seekers and migrants that pushed immigration to the top of the political agenda ahead of a general election in Germany early this year.When prosecutors charged him in February, they said they believed Hasan had been in contact with representatives of the Islamic State group ahead of the attack.The suspect set out to harm “non-believers” at the festival because “he saw them as representatives of Western society”, said prosecutors — but also “to take revenge against them for the military actions of Western states”.IS later said in a statement by its Amaq news agency on the Telegram messaging app that “a soldier” of the group had carried out the attack in “revenge” for Muslims “in Palestine and everywhere”.Hasan made a full confession during his trial, which was held under tight security in Duesseldorf.In a statement read out by his lawyer, he admitted having “committed a grave crime”. “Three people died at my hands. I seriously injured others,” he said.”Some of them survived only by luck. They could have died, too… I deserve and expect a life sentence.”

Egypt forward Omar Marmoush could miss Sunday’s Manchester derby after the Manchester City player suffered a knee ligament injury while on international duty.Marmoush was due to have an X-ray on his arrival in Cairo on Wednesday after he was substituted in the fourth minute of Egypt’s goalless draw with Burkina Faso in a World Cup qualifier in Ouagadougou on Tuesday.He sustained the injury following a tackle and tried to play on but eventually had to limp off.The Egyptian Football Association said in a statement that the national team doctor had “confirmed that Omar Marmoush’s injury is a bruised knee ligament, and the player will undergo an X-ray upon his arrival in Cairo on Wednesday morning.”City host Manchester United on Sunday with both sides needing a win after unconvincing starts to the new Premier League season.Marmoush, 26, has scored eight goals in 28 games for City in all competitions since joining from Eintracht Frankfurt in a £59 million ($79.8 million) transfer in January.