Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country "takes full responsibility" for an unprecedented airstrike on Hamas leaders in Qatar.

"Today's action against the top terrorist chieftains of Hamas was a wholly independent Israeli operation," Netanyahu's office said in a statement Sept. 9. "Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility."

Israel launched the attack on Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar's capital, on Sept. 9. The strike is an expansion of military actions that have ranged across the Middle East to include the Gulf Arab state where the Palestinian Islamist group has long had its political base.

Reuters and Al Jazeera, citing Hamas sources, reported that Hamas negotiators targeted by Israel had survived. Air raid sirens wailed in Jerusalem around 8 p.m. local time as the military reported an incoming rocket attack from Yemen and residents briefly took cover.

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