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Source Says, Israel Targets Hamas Leaders in Qatar Attack; Qatar Says, Israeli Attack in Doha a Criminal Assault; Biggest-Ever Revision to Jobs Numbers Shows Weakened Market. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, huge explosions in Qatar, what we're learning about an Israeli attack against Hamas leadership.

Plus, probe of records. We're getting some new Epstein documents, including that infamous birthday book with a drawing and his signature resembling President Trump's.

And then later, alarming education report, high school seniors reading and math skills are dropping to their lowest levels in more than 20 years. What's behind the drop?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And a major new update on jobs is getting released right now. What will that reveal about the state of the U.S. economy?

Plus, ramping up operations, federal immigration operations are increasing in Chicago and Boston. Illinois' lieutenant governor will join me live. That's coming up soon. We'll get her reaction.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news, major breaking news. Israel is now carrying out an attack against Hamas, the Hamas leadership in Qatar. We're getting video right now in from Doha, Qatar, showing billowing smoke above buildings there. Hamas leaders have used that city as a headquarters outside of Gaza for years.

This attack warns the first time Israel has launched an operation in Qatar will continue. Qatar is calling all of this a criminal assault.

Let's go live right now to CNN Correspondent Paula Hancocks, who's joining us from nearby in Abu Dhabi, and CNN Correspondent Jeremy Diamond in Jerusalem.

So, Jeremy, first of all, what is Israel saying about all of this?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the Israeli military coming right out and acknowledging that they carried out a strike aimed at killing Hamas' political leadership in the Qatari capital of Doha. The Israeli military says that in conjunction with the Shin Bet, which is Israel's internal security service, they, quote, conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization, end quote.

The Israeli military says that they carried out this strike because they hold these leaders of Hamas responsible for the October 7th massacre, 2023, that Hamas carried out. We have watched as Israel has carried out one strike after the next, trying to assassinate and in many cases successfully assassinating Hamas' various leaders, whether we are talking about Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas' political leader who was killed in a Mossad operation in the Iranian capital of Tehran, or Yahya Sinwar, the key architect of the October 7th massacre whom Israel killed inside of the Gaza Strip.

But this is an earth-shattering development, Wolf, in large part because this strike happened in the Qatari capital of Doha. Qatar has been one of the key intermediaries involved in the negotiations to try and end the war in Gaza to secure the release of the hostages. And in carrying out this strike Israel risks, violating the trust that has been built up there with Qatar.

In addition to that, this Israeli strike appears to have primarily targeted Khalil al-Hayya, who is Hamas' leader, and who has also been the chief negotiator involved in these ceasefire and hostage release negotiations since the very first days of this war.

And so questions will immediately be raised about the timing of this Israeli strike given the fact that this comes just days after the United States unveiled its latest effort to try and bring this war to a close, to secure the release of all 48 hostages still remaining inside of the Gaza Strip. In fact, a senior Hamas source is telling us that these Hamas leaders were in the midst of reviewing this latest U.S. proposal at the moment when Israel carried out this strike.

And so this will have enormous implications, not only for Israel's relations with Qatar, but also going forward for the fate of these negotiations to end the war in Gaza and secure the release of those remaining Israeli hostages. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Jeremy Diamond reporting for us, we'll stay in close touch with you. Pamela?

BROWN: Yes. Paula, what is Qatar saying about this?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have a strong statement from Qatar, as you might imagine. They have issued a statement through their foreign ministry spokesperson saying that this attack is a, quote, criminal assault, also saying that it is cowardly and that it is a blatant violation of international laws and norms.

[10:05:05]

Now, Doha would be furious with what has happened.

It's worth pointing out, as Jeremy mentioned there, that the Hamas main negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, is stationed in Doha. He also met with the Qatari prime minister, who's also the foreign minister, just on Monday, we understand. And the prime minister was trying to push him and urge him to accept this U.S. proposal for the ceasefire hostage deal that was on the table. So, there were active negotiations between Hamas stationed in Doha and the Qatari prime minister.

Now, Qatar has been one of the key mediators alongside Egypt and the United States. And this is certainly a very shocking development.

Now, we have seen Israel targeting Hamas leadership in other countries. We have heard repeatedly from the Israeli prime minister that nobody in Hamas is safe and they will target them wherever they are. But in the past, they have targeted them in, Tehran, for example, in Syria, in the deeper parts in Jordan. But there has not been this kind of attack somewhere like Doha.

And also, of course, it was Ismail Haniyeh who was the political chief of Hamas who was assassinated in Tehran. He, at the time, was the chief negotiator. And if, as Jeremy suggests, it was again the chief negotiator for this ceasefire hostage deal that has been targeted, it raises questions once again about whether Israel wants this deal to be done.

The timing is very surprising, given the fact that this new U.S. proposal was on the table. The U.S. president, Donald Trump, had given his verbal approval of it, saying he didn't want to see some hostages released one day and then some more the next week. He wanted all hostages released at the same time. That is what this deal is. It was on the table. We understand Hamas was looking at it. So, of course, a good question is, what does this mean for that deal now?

Now, another interesting point that the Qatari officials gave in this statement was they say that it was residential buildings that were targeted. These buildings were housing several members of the Hamas political bureau. But the fact that it was residential buildings that were targeted in Doha, again, significant. We don't believe that there was a warning for people on the ground. Was this just Hamas who was impacted in this strike?

BLITZER: Paula Hancocks, thank you very, very much. We'll stay in close touch with you.

I want to go get the latest from the White House. Kevin Liptak is there for us. Kevin, what are you hearing from White House officials?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Officials still very much digesting the news of what happened on the ground there in Doha. According to an Israeli official, the U.S. was notified ahead of time of their plans to carry out the strike. We have not gotten confirmation of that from the White House, and I think that that will be a very critical piece of information as we sort of digest what is happening here.

As both Jeremy and Paula have noted, this comes at quite a critical moment. President Trump, as recently as Sunday, said that he thought a deal in Gaza could happen very soon as a result of this new plan that he had put on the table. That would result in the immediate release of all 48 of those hostages in exchange for Israel ending its campaign to occupy Gaza City.

He also wrote something of an ominous warning on Truth Social that day, saying that he's warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting this deal, that this was his last warning. There will not be another one. So, whether that was issued with the knowledge that Israel was planning this attack is a question that I think we have heading in to today as we hear more from White House officials about what exactly transpired here.

The other question is what this does to the U.S.-Qatar relationship. This has been quite a critical relationship. The Qataris have spent ample time trying to cultivate President Trump and his administration over the last several months. President Trump was the first U.S. president to visit Qatar back in May. Qatar hosts the forward headquarters of CENTCOM at Al-Udeid airbase, so some critical components of the U.S. national security infrastructure housed in Qatar.

And according to Qataris who have said this over the last several years, it is actually the United States who asked Qatar to host Hamas' political leadership in Doha as a venue to have these kinds of negotiations. So, how all of this sort of adds up over the coming hours, I think, remains to be seen.

Just one more thing, Wolf, we have heard from the U.S. embassy in Doha, they're saying that they've seen the reports of these missile strikes. They say that they've issued a shelter in place at their facilities, and they're encouraging U.S. citizens who live in the Qatari capital to shelter in place as well.

[10:10:01]

So, the U.S. government now advising both its employees at the embassy, but also all citizens in the Qatari capital to shelter in place as this -- the fallout of this attack becomes known.

BLITZER: Yes, it's really a serious major development that's unfolding right now. And, Kevin, a lot of people probably don't realize that the U.S. and Qatar have an extremely close military to military relationship. The U.S. military Central Command, for example, has bases at the Al-Udeid Air Base, a lot of Air, air Force personnel are there, and Camp As Sayliyah, as you pointed out, ground troops, that's basically a regional headquarters for the us military's Central Command. There are a lot of U.S. military personnel on the ground right now in and around Doha, Qatar, so that's a significant development. We'll continue to watch and monitor that as well. We'll see if that had any impact on this Israeli decision to go ahead and target these facilities in and around Doha, Qatar, where they suspect Hamas officials may be that these negotiations are continuing.

All right, Kevin Liptak, thanks very much. Paula Hancocks, Jeremy Diamond, thanks to you as well.

BROWN: Yes. And we should also note, you know, when you look at the U.S. and Qatar relationship, it was Qatar that gifted controversially that luxury jet to President Trump recently to replace Air Force One. It is a close ally of the United States. So, it will be interesting to hear from the White House on this.

But I first want to go to CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, our correspondent in London. Clarissa, just talk about the significance of what's going on right now.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, this is a seismic event. It's not often you read something across the wires that makes your jaw drop, but this certainly fall into that category. And I think what will be crucial in the coming hours is trying to ascertain Israel's claim that the U.S. was aware of this strike. How aware of the strike were they, did they effectively condone it? And if so, what could the possible impact of that tacit acceptance of this strike be in terms of the relationship between Qatar and the U.S.?

And as Kevin was just articulating, and as you and Wolf have been discussing, this is a crucial relationship for the U.S. Qatar is host to the largest U.S. base in the entire Middle East. This is a close relationship that has lasted over many different administrations. And Qatar has effectively cultivated a unique space for itself in terms of being a neutral space where these talks and negotiations between various non-state actors and states and terrorist groups can happen in a safe and, you know, sensible manner.

This is not the first time. By the way, we're looking very much now at the talks between Hamas and the U.S. and Egypt and Qatar and Israel, but, of course, Qatar was also host to the Taliban and was a crucial part of the U.S. navigating its withdrawal from Afghanistan and essentially forming some kind of a dialogue between the U.S. and the Taliban that without an interlocutor like Qatar would be effectively impossible.

And I think the question now becomes beyond the sort of U.S.-Qatar of it, what does this mean for these negotiations at such a crucial point in this conflict? Do they effectively end for the moment? Do they move to a different location? Do we see Qatar try to launch some kind of a retaliation? I'm not even talking about a military retaliation, but some kind of a very strong diplomatic retaliation at Israel. What does that look like? And does it effectively torpedo these efforts, which had been ostensibly, according to multiple sources, gathering some momentum recently to try to push towards some kind of, if not a permanent end, at least a temporary stop to the fighting in Gaza? Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Clarissa Ward, thank you so much. I know that you're working the phones right now, trying to gather more information. We appreciate it.

BLITZER: And I've spent a lot of time in and around Doha, Qatar at Camp Ay Sayliyah Base, as well as the Al-Udeid Air Base. And this relationship between the U.S. military's Central Command and the Qatari military is very close. It's a key regional ally of the U.S. And we will have more on the impact of the how this Israeli strike is going to impact all of that. I want to get some analysis right now from the former Middle East and North Africa coordinator for the U.S. National Security Council during the Biden administration. We're talking with Brett McGurk right now.

[10:15:00]

He's also a CNN Global Affairs Analyst. Also joining us, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton.

Brett, let me start with you. The Qatari government is blasting this Israeli attack, calling it criminal and a blatant violation, they say, of international laws and norms. How unprecedented, given your experience in the region, is a strike like this, and what are the potential ramifications?

BRETT MCGURK, CNN GLOAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Wolf, on the one hand, it's not surprising that every leader of Hamas has been a dead man walking since October 7th, 2023. So, keep that in mind. However this is shocking. I'll say for a few reasons. Number one, the fact that Israel came out immediately and has taken credit for this, that is highly unusual.

You might recall in the summer of last year Ismail Haniyeh, who was the political leader of Hamas, was killed in Tehran. Israel did not take credit for that attack until -- they didn't even mention it really until December, almost five months later. Here, the Israelis are coming right out, taking full responsibility. The prime minister has a statement out saying it was their independent operation. That is highly unusual.

I say a couple other things first. The target here I think are Khaled Mashal and Khalil al-Hayya. They're the main leaders of Hamas. Mashal has a DOJ warrant out, U.S. warrant out for his acts of terrorism against Americans. So, really, no sympathy for these terrorists who may have lost their lives here in this attack, but the diplomatic ramifications are going to play out.

I think a key question Wolf, is a level of coordination with the United States. And just if I kind of piece the puzzle together over the last 72 hours, that statement from President Trump a couple days ago saying, your last chance, Hamas, to take a deal. And the deal that was put on the table was something that -- I know about these negotiations. I helped lead them really for 18 months, like the two ceasefire deals. What the U.S. put on the table a couple days ago was something Hamas was not going to accept. It required all hostages, all remains on day one of the deal. I just -- we could hope Hamas does that. Clearly, they're not going to take that deal.

And so there's a question here of the coordination with the United States, and I'm thinking back to the 12-day war with Iran, where there are a lot of statements from the White House President Trump saying, I'll decide in two weeks as he was planning the strike into Iran. So, this might have been more coordinated than we suspect. And I think we'll learn that here over the coming hours and days.

BROWN: Yes. Israel says that it did give the U.S. a heads-up. It's an Israeli official talking to CNN. We have not gotten any confirmation or any word from the White House on that. Of course, we hope to hear from the White House soon.

But, Colonel Leighton, how is Qatar likely to respond to this strike?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Pamela. I think they have several choices. One, you know, is probably the most likely, and that is that they will like they already have, they'll condemn it very strongly. And as Ambassador McGurk was talking about, they are probably going to go into some other kind of response mechanism. It's not like Qatar is going to send airplanes against Israel, but what they will do is they will probably slow-roll some economic initiatives that have been in the works between them and the Israelis. They will also probably, on the diplomatic front, make sure that everything associated with things, like the Abraham Accords, that that either, dies of death or that it is put on the backburner. And that's one of the key elements here.

The other thing I think, Pamela, that we'll need to look out for is other kinds of reactions, not only from the government of Qatar, but also people in the region. And that's going to, I think really potentially inflame a lot of the Middle East, you know, the so-called Arab Street. That's going to be, I think, a major factor going forward as this attack, you know, is analyzed and dissected.

BLITZER: All right. Let me follow up with Brett. Qatar, as we've been noting, has been a very key intermediary in all of these ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas. How do you think this might -- this Israeli strike might impact those talks?

MCGURK: Oh, I think the talks are completely I don't want to say dead, but I don't see the talks going anywhere. I think this really puts the hostages out.

I'll say one thing about Qatar. You know, Qatar is not harboring these guys. I mean, I spent months in Qatar dealing with these negotiations between Cairo and Doha. Everybody knows where they live. The United States has asked Qatar to play this role. Israel has asked Cutter to play this role. So, again, I think as Cedric just said, I think the countries will react quite strongly.

I will add, though, in most capitals across the region, there's not going to be much sympathy for the leaders of Hamas. They're part of the Muslim brotherhood, they're a terrorist group.

[10:20:00]

So, there will be broad condemnations, but, you know, quietly, there's a hope that Hamas can be defeated here. But the way the Israelis are going up at this, I just -- I don't -- I hope they're thinking two or three steps ahead. I suspect they really are not. They probably had an opportunity here. Whether or not it was discussed with the White House, as I just mentioned, I think we'll learn. But I really do not see how these talks get moving.

I'll add one thing. I mentioned the two targets in Doha, Khaeid Mashal and Khalil al-Hayya. The leader in Gaza, Izz al-Din al-Haddad, is the last kind of militant leader inside Gaza. He is the hardest core guy. He's the one who's saying no deal whatsoever. And when you remove the political leadership in the middle of a negotiation, it makes it far more likely to get a deal. So, I just -- as an analyst and someone had who has conducted these negotiations, I do not see the way forward now on the hostage deal, unfortunately.

BROWN: And, Colonel Leighton, what do you make of the fact that this apparently happened in a residential area in Qatar?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's really significant, Pamela. So, the one thing I'm going to be looking for along with a lot of others, I think, is collateral damage. How many others were injured or, unfortunately, killed in an attack like this. Of course, we don't know yet what the battle damage assessment, you know, of this particular strike is. But it's very significant.

And as Brett mentioned, there are -- you know, we all knew where these people were living and where they were, you know, conducting business, but there are a lot of other people in those areas. It is not just, you know, restricted to Hamas leadership. There are people from all kinds of nationalities that are conducting business in Qatar and that live in Qatar. And this is going to be I think a significant aspect of this because, you know, once you strike a residential area, it really opens the Pandora's Box. And that's, I think, a very dangerous situation right now.

BLITZER: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much. Brett McGurk, thanks to you as well. Pamela?

BROWN: A very busy morning here in The Situation Room. We are following more breaking news, a new update to the annual jobs report. It's just in and it's the largest on record. We're breaking down the numbers right after this break.

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[10:25:00]

BLITZER: And we have more breaking news, a new warning sign on the economy. Just moments ago, the government delivered a major update on the labor market. It shows jobs growth is weaker, much weaker than previously reported. There were actually 911,000 fewer jobs created in the 12-month period through March of this year. So, that makes it the largest preliminary revision on record.

CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich is in New York. I mean, Vanessa, as I just pointed out, this is huge, the largest revision on record. Walk us through what you're learning.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this just signals in that time period from March -- excuse me, April of 2024 through March of 2025, the jobs market was a lot weaker than initially reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, so 911,000 fewer jobs added over that time period. And when you average it out over those 12 months, you get a revision, a downward revision of an average of 76,000 jobs.

Now, this is a report that comes out every single year. It is typical. It is a typical report. What is a little bit atypical about this report, it is much higher than what we've seen in previous revisions. So, the average number of jobs revised down is a lot greater.

Now, it's important to note that this time period that we're looking at, most of these months were under the Biden administration. Just three months of this report was under the Trump administration. But in terms of what it's telling us about the economy, it's pointing to key sectors that are seeing downwards revisions in the number of jobs added, sectors like trade, transportation, utilities, down about 226,000 jobs. And then you have leisure and hospitality and professional business services also with triple digit losses in terms of jobs that we thought were there but are not there.

This is what happens in these reports. There's a couple reasons why we might be seeing these downward revisions. The first is that this is an estimate initially, and there was weaker than inferred jobs creation at new companies. So, companies thinking they were adding more jobs that they didn't end up adding. Sampling errors from responses from businesses, you get these initial responses from businesses, but then this larger one-year report looks at quarterly tax filings, which are a lot more specific. And also in this preliminary benchmark report, you're not going to see the accounting for undocumented immigrants because they are not included in those quarterly tax filings.

So, taking away from this, Pamela, a weaker year than what was previously reported. However, typical in terms of these reports that we get. The concern from economists, Pamela, is that President Trump was really upset with revisions in the July jobs report, and what is the thought process here about these revisions and whether or not he believes, or the administration believes that this is accurate.

[10:30:00]

BROWN: Right.

But significant downward revisions for that 12 month period, 911,000 jobs, fewer than we expected.