Israel Destroys Trump’s Qatar Strike Timeline
A report citing Israeli officials diverges sharply from the president’s version of events.
Getty Images
Israeli officials have directly contradicted President Trump’s claim that he learned about an Israeli airstrike in Qatar last week only after missiles were already in the air.
A new report from Axios cites several Israeli officials who said that the White House knew about the air strike prior to missiles being launched by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military.
“If Trump had wanted to stop it, he could have,” one of the senior Israeli officials who spoke to Axios said. “In practice, he didn’t.”
That official said that the U.S. had been informed of the planned strike, which targeted senior Hamas officials gathered in Qatar, “well in advance.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) meets with President Trump at the White House. The president reportedly excoriated Netanyahu for the Qatar strike, but new reporting suggests that Trump had advanced knowledge that the strike would take place.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
The disclosure comes after Trump condemned the attacks and wrote on Truth Social that “This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me.”
In that post, the president wrote that he attempted to inform Qatar of the strike beforehand—a claim that was also later disputed by officials—and that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil.”
That uncharacteristic contrition for Trump came two months after Qatar “donated” a $400 million Boeing 747 to the U.S. in July. Axios reported last Thursday that President Trump chastised Netanyahu in a phone call after the attack and demanded that he not repeat it.
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Its most recent article, however, suggests that Trump and Netanyahu had spoken previously about the strike.
“Trump knew about the strike before the missiles were launched,” a senior Israeli official claimed. “First there was a discussion on the political level between Netanyahu and Trump, and afterwards through military channels. Trump didn’t say no.”
Smoke billowing from a building in Doha, after an Israeli missile strike targeting Hamas leaders. Qatar condemned Israel's strike as a “blatant violation of international law.”
Jacqueline Penney/Getty Images
Trump told reporters last Tuesday that he was “very unhappy about every aspect” of the situation.
According to Israeli officials, Trump’s public disapproval of the strike and internal frustration from senior American officials are the products of political posturing.
“What they say publicly should be taken with a grain of salt,” said one official to Axios, adding that the administration had clear reasons to disavow the attack.
The missile strike reportedly killed five Hamas members and one Qatari security officer, but Hamas said that all of its top leaders survived. Israeli officials also indicated that the terrorist group’s top brass left the building that was struck shortly before it burst into flames.
President Donald Trump met with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani during a visit to the Middle East in May, becoming the first US president to visit the oil-rich Gulf nation.
Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
Qatar has positioned itself as a key mediator between Hamas and Israel, as an American ally that has sway with influential Gulf states in the region.
Trump became the first president to visit the country in May, and he met again with the Qatari prime minister on Friday, days after the strike.
Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said after the strike that his country reserved “the right to retaliate” against Israel and that the attempt to eliminate Hamas’s leadership “killed any hope” of freeing the remaining Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Right before the strike, Hamas was reportedly considering an American ceasefire proposal that aimed to facilitate the release of all the hostages in exchange for concessions from Israel.
Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani condemned Israel's attack on the country, which has hosted multiple rounds of Gaza ceasefire talks.
Karim Jafaar/AFP via Getty Images
Those concessions included the release of Palestinian prisoners and an eventual withdrawal from Gaza, which the U.S. would take charge of.
Trump said days before the attack that a deal between the two warring parties could come “very soon.”
With the controversial strike in Doha, that possibility has now evaporated—which some Arab officials believe was the ultimate goal of the Israeli strike.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and a spokesperson for Prime Minister Netanyahu for comment.
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