Trump aides say they ‘felt betrayed’ by Israel’s attack on Doha
(MENAFN) Senior US negotiators in the Gaza peace talks said they felt “betrayed” after Israel launched an airstrike on Qatar during ongoing mediation efforts.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, were central to the president’s “dealmaking consortium” working on a ceasefire and hostage exchange. They participated in talks in Egypt in early October, weeks after the Israeli strike on Doha, which killed several people and nearly derailed the negotiations.
In an interview aired Friday, Witkoff said he learned of the attack the following morning. “I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed,” he said. He added that the strike had a “metastasizing effect” because Qatar, along with Egypt and Turkey, was critical to the talks.
“We had lost the confidence of the Qataris. And so Hamas went underground, and it was very, very difficult to get to them.”
Qatar, a longtime mediator and US ally in the Gaza ceasefire, condemned the strike as “state terrorism.” Trump expressed solidarity with Doha and later clarified that the attack had been ordered solely by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the White House learning too late to intervene.
Kushner said Trump felt Israel was “getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing” and that “it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
The airstrike targeted senior Hamas officials attending negotiations in a Doha residential area. Six people were killed, including a Qatari security officer, though the attack did not eliminate the Hamas delegation or leadership. Netanyahu later apologized to Qatar, expressing “deep regret” over the unintended deaths.
The ceasefire agreement, signed in Sharm el-Sheikh by Trump and mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye, called for Israel to withdraw from parts of Gaza and release 20 Israeli hostages in exchange for 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.
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