US negotiators say Israeli attacks on Qatar affected Gaza’s talks
(MENAFN) Two senior US negotiators involved in efforts to broker a Gaza ceasefire expressed deep frustration over an Israeli missile strike in September targeting a compound in Doha, Qatar that housed Hamas representatives. The incident, they said, severely damaged “trust” and disrupted ongoing regional mediation.
In a detailed interview aired on a news agency on Sunday, Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and informal adviser, said the strike “violated a lot of the trust that we felt we deserved from the Israeli side,” adding, “it was not a smart strategic move.”
US Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff shared similar sentiments, describing the attack as a betrayal. The strike took place while US, Israeli, and Qatari officials were making progress toward a ceasefire and hostage agreement. “We were having a very productive session,” he recalled. “Then we woke up the next morning to find out that there had been this attack.”
The two officials said the bombing “crossed a line” for US mediators, temporarily halting negotiations, sidelining Qatar — a central intermediary between Washington and Hamas — and forcing Hamas negotiators to operate in secrecy. “We had lost the confidence of the Qataris,” Witkoff said. “That attack had a metastasizing effect.”
Kushner added that President Trump personally intervened, pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize to Qatari leadership. “That apology was pivotal,” Witkoff noted. “It was the linchpin that got us to the next place.”
The episode highlighted underlying tensions between US and Israeli strategies in the Gaza ceasefire discussions. According to Kushner, Washington’s approach depended on “trust and pragmatic realism,” cautioning that “breaking that trust” could jeopardize long-term stability.
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