Trump felt 'betrayed' by 'out of control' Israel after strikes on Qatar, ceasefire negotiators say
Donald Trump felt Israel had become “out of control” after a strike on peace negotiators in Qatar, his son-in-law and chief envoy to the Middle East have revealed.
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Speaking a week after Israel and Hamas signed a peace deal, two of Mr Trump’s key negotiators have revealed his anger at Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to launch a strike on the US ally in the weeks before a ceasefire was agreed.
In September, Israel carried out a series of attacks on the Qatari capital Doha in a bid to take out senior Hamas leaders gathered to discuss the US-backed ceasefire proposal at the time.
The strikes failed to eliminate Hamas’ leadership and, in many ways, made peace seem further away than ever.
Read more: Body of 10th October 7 hostage identified as Hamas accuses Israel of 'violating ceasefire'
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Now, Mr Trump’s Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner have revealed the president’s fury in the wake of the strikes.
“[Trump] felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control,” Kushner told 60 Minutes.
“We felt a little bit betrayed,” Mr Witkoff added.
“It was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”
The strike had a “metastasising effect”, Mr Witkoff said, forcing “Hamas underground” and seeing the US relationship with Qatar seriously damaged.
The Qataris were critical to the negotiation, as were the Egyptians and the Turks,” he said.
“And we had lost the confidence of the Qataris. And so Hamas went underground and it was very, very difficult to get to them.”
Prior to last week’s agreement between Israel and Hamas, Mr Netanyahu was forced by Donald Trump to call Qatar’s leadership and apologise for the strike.
This is said to have been important in convincing Hamas to agree to a ceasefire with Israel.
It comes as Israel has identified the body of the tenth Hamas hostage returned in the wake of the ceasefire.
Eliyahu Margalit’s remains were identified early on Saturday as Israel sent bulldozers into Gaza to search for the bodies of the remaining hostages.
Margalit was abducted from a horse stable in Kibbutz Nir Oz when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 2023.
He becomes the tenth dead hostage to be identified following the signing of Mr Trump’s peace deal signed last week.
Hamas has today accused Israel of violating their peace deal after 11 people were reportedly shot dead in Gaza yesterday.
The victims, including 7 children and three women, the group said.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the deaths.