RAF plane seen over Doha during Israeli attack part of annual UK-Qatar exercise

A British plane seen on flight-tracking apps above Qatar on Monday around the time of Israel's surprise strike on Doha was participating in an annual UK-Qatari exercise, Middle East Eye has learnt.

The RAF Voyager tanker was in the sky as over a dozen Israeli fighter jets hit a meeting of senior Hamas officials who were discussing the latest US-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza. 

The attack on residential buildings near schools and embassies killed six people, including the son of Hamas' chief negotiator and a member of Qatar's internal security force, and injured several civilians.

Senior leaders, which have been hosted in the country since 2012, survived the attack, sources close to the movement have told MEE. 

Meanwhile, the presence of the RAF plane has sparked online speculation that the aircraft was involved in the strike, including rumours that it refuelled the Israeli fighter jets.

Qatar has strongly condemned Israeli airstrikes on Doha, calling them a "cowardly attack" and a "blatant violation of international law."

Officials confirmed residential buildings housing Hamas political leaders were hit on Tuesday. They warned that the assault posed a serious… pic.twitter.com/fkwJRwndQh

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) September 9, 2025

However, a defence source told MEE the plane was in the air as part of "Soaring Falcon", an annual exercise which gives RAF and Qatari Emiri Air Force pilots an opportunity to practice air-to-air refuelling.

The source said that the Voyager KC3 in question is not equipped with surveillance capabilities and uses a refuelling system, called "probe and drogue", which is not compatible with and would be unable to provide fuel to Israeli Air Force aircraft.

Publicly available flight data shows that the plane was in the air for over five hours on Monday, taking off shortly before 3pm local time before landing a little after 8pm at Al Udeid Air Base, where it has been deployed from RAF Brize Norton since 3 September. Explosions were reportedly first heard in Doha around 3pm.

The Trump administration has said it received a warning about the attack from the US military just before it took place and notified Qatari officials.

Majed al-Ansari, a spokesperson for the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on X that the call from the US came "during the sound of explosions caused by the Israeli attack in Doha".

The timing of the Israeli attack, while a military exercise involving an ally was underway, suggests that Israel took "a major risk with this reckless operation", Andreas Krieg, associate professor at the Defence Studies Department of King's College London, told MEE.

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"The short notice that [Israel] gave US CENTCOM meant that the UK was taken by surprise - so much so that scheduled exercises were continued," Krieg said.

"All of the countries are part of a US CENTCOM security infrastructure and so one would not expect Israel to violate the sovereignty of a fellow CENTCOM ally of the United States without sufficient prior warning."

He added: "The UK meanwhile maintains a close intel relationship with the US via the Five Eyes and would expect to get a warning on time. By the looks of it, that warning came very late as the Israeli operation was already in space. It left very little room and time for deconfliction."

With the strike in Qatar, Israel bombed at least five countries and territories in the region over a 24-hour period this week, including Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria and Gaza.

"No one and no place in the region is safe under this Netanyahu government," Jasmine el-Gamal, foreign policy analyst and former Pentagon Middle East adviser, said on Monday.

"That's basically the message here. This is not the first time Netanyahu has ordered a strike on a sovereign country. Every single time he's done it."