DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israeli fighter jets over the Red Sea launched ballistic missiles to target Hamas leaders in Qatar last week, a U.S. defense official said, in what was a novel method likely designed to overcome the energy-rich country’s air defenses and avoid entering any Mideast nation’s airspace.

The Sept. 9 attack, which killed six people in Qatar's capital, Doha, upended months of diplomacy mediated by the Arabian Peninsula nation to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the Gaza Strip over nearly two years. Just over a week after the missile launch, Israel began a ground offensive targeting Gaza City . That has reignited anger in the region over the war , while the Doha attack has raised fears in other countries that they, too, could

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