In an unprecedented move, Israeli fighters launched over the Red Sea of ​​ballistic missiles aimed at Hamas’ leadership in Qatar, according to a US defense ministry official, a tactic that was estimated to be overlooked.

The September 9th attack, which killed six people in Doha, overturned months of diplomatic efforts in which Qatar was intended to achieve a truce in the Israel-Hamas war.

Just a week after the attack, Israel launched a land operation against the city of Gaza. This has rekindled the rage in the war for the war, while the attack on Doha has intensified fears of other countries that they can be a target.

The Israeli army took advantage of the element of surprise, launching in a direction that probably did not expect Qatar or the United States, whose headquarters in the Middle East operates from the Air Undeid air base in Qatar.

Even if they knew it, experts say that Patriot missiles in Qatar would probably not be able to intercept missiles that travel through space at speeds of sound.

“We’re probably talking about a few minutes from launch to the impact, so no long time,” said Sidarte Causal, a missile expert and a senior researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London. “Even though (Patriot arrays) were locating it, the interception would be a pure luck at that point.”

The rockets were launched by the Red Sea

A US Department of Defense official told the Associated Press that the rockets were launched by Israeli fighters over the Red Sea, while Hamas leaders were in Qatar to consider a ceasefire proposal in Gaza. The official had a direct knowledge of how the attack was carried out by Israel and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another US official, who also spoke anonymously, said the Israeli blow was an “over the horizon attack” from areas outside the Qatari airspace. The US Army usually uses the term to describe air strikes from long distances.

With the launch of ballistic missiles in space, Israel kept missiles outside the airspace of neighboring Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, with which it has long been seeking a diplomatic recognition agreement.

“There is also the political factor: You do not fly over the airspace of Saudi Arabia by violating its sovereignty, which is obviously useful if you feed the hope to normalize relations with the Saudis,” Causal said.

The rockets were also launched from west to east, in a direction that probably did not watch the air defense systems in Qatar, either American or Qatari. The key regional threats that concern the Gulf countries mainly come from the North, namely Iran, which had previously launched an attack on Qatar, or the south, from areas controlled by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

The ballistic missiles go up to the upper atmosphere or even to the space before returning at speeds multiplied by the sound. While a Patriot array cannot hurt them at these heights, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system can. Qatar ordered such a system during Donald Trump’s visit in May.

The United States said they alerted Qatar as soon as they learned of the Israeli attack, but officials in Doha argue that the warning came only after the rockets had already hit the target.

An Israeli official, speaking under anonymity, said that about 10 aircraft were involved in the mission and launched about 10 rockets. Israel has not recognized either the weapons used or the exact elements of the blow.

The use of ballistic missiles launched by aircraft is a common practice during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Moscow seeks to protect its aircraft from Ukrainian anti -aircraft systems. China presented this month a nuclear -powered ballistic missile, at the military parade of Victory Day.

Israel has several variations of ballistic missiles launched by air, which became publicly known after the leak of US intelligence documents last year. These include Golden Horizon and IS02 Rock, with documents reporting that Israel could probably use them to hurt Iran.

In June, Israel launched a 12 -day war against Iran, which included the use of “standoff” weapons, which allow an aircraft to hit a target of a country’s airspace. According to experts, they also included ballistic missiles launched by air, which was documented by the missiles later found in the ground in Iraq.

Jeffrey Lewis, a missile expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, estimated that the missiles used in Doha could be either Golden Horizon or an Israeli Sparrow variant.

The Sparrow rocket also has a version with an inert war head, which may explain the limited damage caused and the fact that a gas station next to the blow point did not explode. Its estimated range reaches about 2,000 kilometers. A launch from the Red Sea to the target would cover up to 1,700 kilometers.

“Even an idle head beats with enormous power, let’s say a few hundred pounds of TNT,” Lewis said.