Trump accuses Netanyahu of ordering Qatar attack, claims US had no time to intervene

US President Donald Trump said that the decision for Israel to attack Qatar was made entirely by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stressing that his administration did not have enough time to prevent it.

In a statement on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, Trump referred to the Israeli strike on a Hamas negotiating delegation in Qatar.

He said: “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals.”        

Trump added: “This was a decision made by [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me,” pointing out that his administration was informed of the attack only shortly before it took place, through the US military.

READ: Hamas says 5 members killed in Israeli strike on Qatari capital, negotiating team survived

He explained that he instructed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to alert the Qataris of the “impending attack” as soon as the information was received, “but unfortunately it was too late to stop it.”

Trump later said he felt “very badly about the location of the attack” and that he had assured Qatar that it would not happen again.

He also said he had tasked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio with finalising a defence cooperation agreement with Qatar.

Earlier on Tuesday, Qatar announced that Israel had carried out what it described as “a cowardly attack that targeted residential buildings used by several members of Hamas’s political bureau in Doha.”

READ: Qatar vows to defend sovereignty after Israel attacks Hamas leaders in Qatar