Witkoff Says He and Kushner ‘Felt a Little Bit Betrayed’ By Israeli Strike In Qatar

President Donald Trump believed Israel had gone too far following its failed September 9 strike on Hamas’s senior leadership in Doha, according to remarks by his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner in an interview aired Friday.

Kushner made the comment alongside U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff during a joint appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes. The two men, both instrumental in crafting the Gaza ceasefire and hostage-release deal, are featured in an interview set to air in full on Sunday.

“I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed,” Witkoff said, referring to Israel’s decision to strike Hamas leaders gathered in Qatar’s capital—a move that jeopardized delicate ceasefire talks mediated by Doha.

“It had a metastasizing effect because the Qataris were critical to the negotiation, as were the Egyptians and the Turks,” Witkoff explained. “We had lost the confidence of the Qataris. And so Hamas went underground, and it was very, very difficult to get to them.”

According to Kushner, the fallout from the strike convinced Trump that “it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”

Israel’s domestic opposition quickly seized on the revelations. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid posted on X that the comments amounted to an “earthquake,” adding that “no Israeli government has ever been described this way by an American administration.”

Lapid elaborated, “After the failed attack on Doha, Trump thought Netanyahu had lost control, and imposed a deal on him that Netanyahu didn’t want. The ’60 Minutes’ interview proves that it could have been arranged for Egypt to govern Gaza and help us fight Hamas. Instead, Netanyahu’s lack of control led to the entry of Turkey and Qatar, two of Hamas’s ideological partners.”

Following the botched Doha operation, Trump publicly expressed dissatisfaction with Israel, saying he was “very unhappy” about the attack on what he called a “strong” U.S. ally and that he had not been given adequate advance notice of Israel’s plans.

In the aftermath, Trump pledged that the United States would protect Qatar from future attacks and ensured that Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu formally apologized to Doha. The strike failed to eliminate its intended Hamas targets but resulted in the deaths of several lower-ranking Hamas operatives and a Qatari security guard.

{Matzav.com}