WSJ Reporting Indicates Israeli Attack On Qatar Involved Use of Air-Launched Ballistic Missiles Over The Red Sea

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Note: The following text was originally posted on my X/Twitter account.

A new Wall Street Journal article offers additional information on how Israel targeted HAMAS' political leadership in Qatar. Israel appears to have launched air-launched ballistic missiles from F-15I strike fighters over the Red Sea, seemingly without flying through Saudi airspace. Unsurprisingly, the WSJ article claims that the U.S. military detected the infrared signatures of these ballistic missile launches through its space-based infrared system (SBIRS) satellites. There is no mention of the American-built Qatari UHF-band AN/FPS-132 ballistic missile early warning radar. It is also worth noting that publicly available videos are not indicative of ten or more (as originally reported by Israeli media) munition impacts. It is therefore unclear whether there was a target other than that particular compound used by HAMAS' political leadership. Perhaps one or more of the Israeli missiles failed in flight. While it is possible that one or more of the Israeli missiles were intercepted, people on the ground in the region would have likely noticed ballistic missile defence interceptor activity.