President Donald Trump has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s strikes on Hamas in Qatar on Tuesday.
Trump said he was not told in advance about the attack and stressed he had no role in one U.S. ally targeting another. Qatar has been key in talks to end the Gaza war and free hostages.
“I’m not thrilled about the whole situation,” Trump told reporters during a rare outing to a Washington restaurant. “We want the hostages back, but we are not thrilled about the way that went down today.”
“This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” Trump said in a post on social media.
Trump called Qatar a strong U.S. ally and said he regretted the attack’s location, though he still saw defeating Hamas as a “worthy goal.” Echoing the White House, he warned that bombing inside Qatar—an ally helping with Gaza peace talks—hurts both U.S. and Israeli interests.
As Qatar raised concerns about the attack, Trump assured them it wouldn’t happen again and said he had directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to finalize a defense cooperation agreement with Doha.
Trump said the U.S. had no prior warning about the Israeli strike. He was told by the military that Hamas was being targeted in Doha and quickly sent a warning to Qatar, but it was too late.
Trump told Qatar’s Emir that such an attack won’t happen again. Qatar also said it got no warning—the U.S. call came as the explosions were already happening.
