Israel’s surprise attack in Qatar on Tuesday targeting Hamas’ top political leadership failed to kill any senior officials, according to Hamas.

But it was the latest in a long campaign of targeted attacks aimed at hunting down Israel’s top enemies since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023. In the past two years, Israel is known to have carried out a string of targeted strikes throughout the Middle East — in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, and now Qatar — against top leaders of militant groups, and even Iranian officials themselves.

In Lebanon and Iran, those killings helped lead to an end of hostilities — for now. In Gaza and Yemen, they did little to bring an end to war.

Here are some of the most prominent figures Israel has killed in the region in the past two years.

Saleh Arouri, a Hamas leader killed in Lebanon

Arouri was the first high-ranking Hamas leader to be killed by Israel abroad after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

Arouri served many years in Israeli prison before he was released in a 2011 prisoner swap with Israel and sent abroad. From exile, he coordinated Hamas attacks on Israel from the West Bank. Israel killed him in a strike in Lebanon in January 2024.

He was succeeded by Zaher Jabareen, whom Israel tried to kill in its Tuesday strike on Doha.

Mohammed Deif, Hamas’ elusive military chief

The top commander of Hamas’ military wing in Gaza was an elusive figure and had long been on Israel’s kill list. A heavy Israeli strike on a tent camp for displaced persons in Gaza killed him in July 2024. Around 90 other Palestinians are believed to have been killed in that strike, according to Gaza health officials. Hamas denied Deif’s death for months and acknowledged it only this year.

Israel’s defense minister at the time called Deif the “Osama bin Laden of Gaza” and said his death was “a significant milestone in the process of dismantling Hamas as a military and governing authority in Gaza.”

Israel also killed Deif’s successor, Mohammed Sinwar, in May of this year, in a strike on a tunnel under a hospital in Khan Younis. His role is now held by Izzedin al-Haddad, who continues to command Hamas forces fighting Israeli troops in Gaza.

Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ top leaders

The head of Hamas’ political wing since 2017, Haniyeh left Gaza with his family and other Hamas leaders in 2019 and moved to Doha. An Israeli explosion killed him in July 2024 in Tehran, where he was attending the Iranian president’s inauguration.

Haniyeh was considered to be among Hamas’ more moderate leaders, and was seen as more amenable to negotiating a ceasefire deal with Israel.

He was replaced by Yahya Sinwar, who had served as the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip — a more hardline leader, whom Israel accused of masterminding the Oct. 7 attack.

Sinwar was killed by Israeli troops in October 2024. Netanyahu called his death the “beginning of the day after Hamas.” Nearly one year later, Hamas still survives.

Hassan Nasrallah, longtime Hezbollah leader, killed in Lebanon

On Sept. 27, 2024, the longtime leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah was killed by an Israeli strike on a secret underground Hezbollah facility in Beirut. President Joe Biden cautiously welcomed the killing, saying it delivered “a measure of justice” for thousands of Nasrallah’s victims.

Nasrallah’s killing — along with Israel’s ground invasion of southern Lebanon and Israel’s exploding pagers maiming hundreds of Hezbollah operatives — helped lead to a ceasefire and an end to heavy cross-border fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. It also weakened Hezbollah, a strong ally of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, leading to the fall of his regime.

Since then, Hezbollah has been engaged in negotiations with the Lebanese government about disarmament, while some Israeli troops remain in strategic positions in southern Lebanon and have continued periodic strikes on Hezbollah targets.

A top Iranian military officer, killed in consulate in Syria

Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top Iranian general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was among senior Iranian military officials killed in an airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus in April 2024.

Israel did not take responsibility, but Iran blamed Israel for the strike, and launched missiles at Israel that month in retaliation. It was the first direct military confrontation between Iran and Israel, and it led to a full-blown war between the countries this year.

Senior Iranian officials killed in surprise Israeli blitz on Tehran

In June 2025, Israel launched a war with Iran that began with a surprise offensive targeting nuclear facilities and senior officials. Among those killed were Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force, and senior Iranian nuclear scientists.

The conflict — which also drew in the U.S. with its bombing of Iranian nuclear sites and drew Iranian missile attacks on Israel — lasted 12 days before the U.S. and Qatar brokered a ceasefire.

Since then, no direct military exchanges have taken place between Israel and Iran. But analysts estimate the strikes did not eliminate Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile and did not bring about a negotiated resolution to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Some analysts predict Israel and Iran may be preparing for another round of war.

Houthi leaders killed in Yemen, but Houthi attacks continue

In late August, Israel carried out an airstrike on Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, killing a number of senior leaders of the Iranian-backed militant group that rules in Yemen’s capital. Among those killed was Houthi Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi, along with several other senior ministers.

The strike was in retaliation to Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel, one of which landed near Israel’s international airport in May and led to airline cancellations. The Houthis have targeted Israel in retaliation for its offensive in Gaza.

Following the August airstrike, Israel’s defense minister declared, “The Houthis will learn the hard way that anyone who threatens or harms Israel will pay many times over — and it will not be they who decide when this ends.”

But Houthi and Israeli attacks have not stopped until this day.

Bashir reported from Sheffield, England. Stern reported from Tel Aviv. NPR’s Daniel Estrin contributed to this report from Tel Aviv.

The mob that crashed an SUV through the front door of Kim Hung Jewelry in San José arrived in multiple vehicles and carried out their smash-and-grab robbery in less than a minute.

The masked robbers stormed through the shattered storefront, brandishing hammers, at least one gun and trash bags to haul away the merchandise, according to police.

The brazen daylight heist, which was caught on video, prompted an angry response from lawmakers, public safety advocates and Vietnamese community leaders who called for increased law enforcement resources to combat organized crime rings. It has also forced the Vietnamese family running the jewelry story to consider abandoning the business.

“This happens way too often, this doesn’t have to happen,” said Tuan Ngo, an organizer with a public safety advocacy group called Asians Unite.

Moments before the robbery Friday, the 88-year-old store owner and his adult son were getting ready to close the family business on Aborn Road in the nondescript strip mall. They stowed away most of their jewelry into a safe just after 2 p.m., according to relatives. That’s when a gray SUV backed into a parking spot outside and jumped the curb, crashing into the front entrance.

The gray Ford Explorer crumbled a metal security gate and shoved a long display case back several feet. In surveillance video from inside the store, the father and son are seen jumping at the loud crash. The father appeared stunned, while the son runs away from the gnarled metal and broken glass. Relatives declined to identify the father and son for fear of retaliation from the robbers.

After a brief pause, the SUV pulled away and the mob stormed in through the gaping maw that was once the front door. The group wore knit caps, gloves, masks and hooded sweaters.

“Everybody get the f— down!” one of the suspects shouted, according to surveillance video.

The son fell to the floor and the father cried out as the masked thieves smashed display cases with hammers. One hooded robber grabbed an object out of the store owner’s hands and another shoved the elderly man to the floor.

At one point, a masked suspect appeared to point a handgun at the son. The group raced around the store, gathering items and dropping them into trash bags. The entire robbery unfolded in about 40 seconds, according to the surveillance video shared with The Times.

The group ran outside and jumped into at least four vehicles waiting in the parking lot. They left behind the SUV used to smash into the storefront.

The San José Police Department said the agency has no information to release about the suspects and the case is being investigated by the robbery unit.

The store owner’s niece, Linh, said her uncle is afraid, traumatized and uncertain whether he wants to keep the family business open. Linh declined to give her last name out of concern for her safety.

“We just don’t know if there will be a business there anymore,” she said. She said she feels “traumatized, angry, bad, sad.”

Linh said her uncle arrived in California over 40 years ago from South Vietnam and raised his family in and around San José.

“He’s a family man [who loves] his family,” Linh said.

She arrived at the store about 10 minutes after the robbery.

“He was very scared. He just kept speaking in Vietnamese,” Linh said. “Ối giời ơi, Ối giời ơi. Oh my god, oh my god.”

She noticed her uncle’s feet were bloodied from walking on broken glass in sandals and he was staring off into the distance and appeared to be in a fog. His voice was uneven and he wouldn’t say more than a few words at a time, she said. After a visit to a hospital, relatives learned that the elderly man had suffered a stroke. He spent the weekend in the hospital and by Wednesday the family said that he was recuperating at home.

Although a recent study from financial tech company SmartAsset ranked San José as one of the nation’s safest major cities, the robbery drew angry condemnations and calls for increased law enforcement.

The Vietnamese community rallied outside the jewelry store Tuesday evening, calling for better policing and more funding for public safety. They held signs that say “End Smash & Grab” and that call for the state to implement tougher penalties for criminals as approved by voters in November under Proposition 36.

Mayor Matt Mahan said San José is angry about the state of crime and acknowledged that the surveillance video of the smash-and-grab robbery “made his blood boil.”

Public safety advocacy groups have seized on the moment to ask state legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom to increase policing and install more license plate readers in and around the Bay Area. The Coalition for Community Engagement, a group that supported the 2024 recall of Oakland’s mayor and Alameda County’s district attorney, pointed to the San José smash-and-grab as another example of crime run rampant.

“These are organized crime rings that operate around California. It was just San José’s turn on the list,” said Coalition for Community Engagement founder Edward Escobar.

Linh, the store owner’s niece, said her family is not asking for donations for her uncle’s store or his recovery.

“We just only are asking for prayer and wishes for him to get better,” she said. “We want everybody to know about the safety of our businesses right now.”