White House criticizes Israeli strike on Hamas in Qatar

The Trump administration on Tuesday criticized Israel’s decision to launch a strike on senior Hamas officials in Qatar’s capital city of Doha.

“Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard in bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to reporters at the White House.

“Eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal,” she added.

Asked if President Donald Trump believes the attack in Qatar — a mediator in ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas — undermines the ongoing negotiations, Leavitt reread the president’s statement verbatim.

The Trump administration was informed of the attack by the U.S. military, which learned of it just before it was carried out, Leavitt said.

She declined to say if the U.S. military, which maintains a major base in Qatar, had been alerted in advance by Israel, or if it had learned of the impending strike through other means.

Her comments appeared to conflict with a White House official’s claim to CNBC earlier Tuesday that the Trump administration was notified by Israel just before the attack.

Leavitt also said that Trump “immediately” ordered Steve Witkoff, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, to tell Qatar of the forthcoming attack, “which he did.”

But Majed al Ansari, the spokesman for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said later Tuesday, “The statements being circulated about Qatar being informed of the attack in advance are baseless.”

“The communication received from one of the American officials came during the sound of explosions resulting from the Israeli attack in Doha,” al Ansari said.

The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for clarification.

Leavitt also said that Trump “views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States and feels very badly about the location of this attack.”

Trump assured Qatar’s leaders that “such a thing will not happen again on their soil,” she said.

Trump also spoke with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said “he wants to make peace and quickly” with Hamas.

But the strike on the capital of a foreign sovereign nation is a significant escalation of Tel Aviv’s efforts to destroy the group that orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and massacre of Israelis.

On Tuesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces announced the “precise strike” in a social media post, accusing the targeted leaders of being “directly responsible” for Oct. 7.

The IDF’s post did not identify the location of the strike. But a senior Israeli official confirmed to NBC News that it occurred in Doha.

Al Ansari condemned “the cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential headquarters housing several members of the political bureau of the movement in the Qatari capital, Doha.”

“This criminal assault constitutes a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms, and a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar,” the spokesman said in a translated X post.

A leading Hamas source told Al Jazeera, the Qatari media network, that the strike targeted the group’s negotiating delegation, NBC reported.

The delegation was attacked during a meeting to discuss Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, according to NBC.

The U.S. embassy in Doha issued a shelter-in-place order at its facilities in response to reports of the strike, but lifted all restrictions later Tuesday.