Israeli forces carried out a strike in Doha early Wednesday that Qatari officials described as an assault on a facility linked to armed groups, a development that has rattled Gulf diplomacy and left former President Donald Trump publicly complaining that he was not told in advance. The attack, which Qatar said caused both damage and fatalities, came as evacuation orders in Gaza City intensified and Houthi rebels launched a separate strike in the Red Sea, heightening fears of a wider regional conflagration.

Qatar’s foreign ministry condemned the strike and called for “an immediate inquiry” and accountability, citing civilian harm. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the operation as narrowly targeted at an intelligence node of an Iranian-backed network operating out of Doha, and said it was undertaken to prevent imminent attacks on Israeli territory. The official declined to disclose the precise nature of the intelligence or to say whether other states had been notified beforehand.

Mr. Trump, who has cultivated close ties with the Israeli government and often receives classified briefings as a former president, said in a social-media statement that he was “kept in the dark” and that the lack of notification put regional stability at risk. “If there is going to be war, the American people and their leaders deserve to be informed,” he wrote. A senior White House spokesman said President Joe Biden had been briefed through established channels and urged “measured de-escalation” while the administration consulted with partners.

The timing deepens strains around Qatar’s role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas and as a host for diplomats and international organizations. Doha has been central to previous cease-fire talks; the strike threatens to undercut those delicate channels just as Israel’s military orders for Gaza City evacuations have intensified. Humanitarian groups warned that repeated displacement orders risk becoming permanent, with a senior United Nations official telling reporters that “the cumulative effect is to fracture civilian life across Gaza.”

Complicating the diplomatic picture, Houthi forces in Yemen launched a missile and drone attack later Wednesday toward commercial shipping in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which coalition naval forces said they had intercepted. The Houthis have increasingly framed their operations as retaliation for Israeli strikes on Palestinian territories and for broader regional alignments with Israel.

International law experts cautioned that an attack on sovereign Qatari soil raises thorny legal and political questions, particularly if it involved covert action without host authorization. “States usually weigh the immediate security gain against the long-term cost: alienating mediators, provoking proxy actors and complicating relationships with major powers,” said Lina Haddad, a Middle East analyst at an international think tank.

For now, diplomats in Doha, Jerusalem, Washington and Tehran are conducting intensive consultations, aiming to prevent a spiral. But the episode illustrates how discrete kinetic actions can cascade into diplomatic crises — and how exclusionary communication, even with a former American president, can add an unexpected domestic dimension to volatile regional policymaking.