WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Israel will not launch further strikes on Qatar, after last week’s attack on Doha that Israel claimed targeted senior Hamas officials.
“Well, he won’t be hitting in Qatar,” Trump said of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he responded to reporters’ questions in the Oval Office on Monday.
Qatar, Trump added, has “been a very good ally, and a lot of people don’t know that, but he won’t be hitting Qatar. He will be maybe going after them.”
According to Anadolu Agency (AA), it remains unclear what the president meant, but his comments apparently appear to leave the door open to Netanyahu taking other actions against Hamas figures in the Gulf Arab state.
On September 9, 2025, Israeli warplanes struck a residential area in Doha, Qatar, in what Tel Aviv claimed was a targeted operation against senior Hamas officials based in the Gulf state. The strikes killed several people and caused widespread alarm in the region, marking the first time Qatar had been directly attacked during the Gaza war. The assault was widely condemned as a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty, with Arab and Islamic states warning it risked escalating regional instability.
Denial of prior knowledge
Trump also denied media reports that Netanyahu personally informed him just before Israel carried out last Tuesday’s strikes on Doha.
“No, they didn’t,” Trump said. Asked how he learned of the strikes, he replied: “the same way you did.”
Following the attacks, the White House maintained that the US military informed the administration only after the missiles were already airborne, leaving Trump no opportunity to object.
Leaders at an emergency Arab-Islamic summit in Doha on Monday warned that Israel’s attacks on Qatar carried dangerous consequences for the region, urging collective action to counter what they described as Israeli attempts to impose a new reality on the Middle East.
The summit’s final communiqué, published by Qatar’s state news agency QNA, condemned the strikes on Doha and voiced full solidarity with Qatar. It said Israeli aggression “undermines any chances of achieving peace in the region.”
The statement further stressed the need to “stand against Israel’s plans to impose a new reality in the region,” warning that such efforts pose a “direct threat to regional and international security.”
