Qatar denies White House claim Trump sent warning before Israel’s attack

WASHINGTON: The administration of US President Donald Trump has said it notified Qatari officials before Israel’s attack on Hamas negotiators in Doha, a claim refuted by the Gulf country.

The statement from the White House on Tuesday came hours after the strike on a residential area in the Gulf country’s capital, Doha. Qatar has been a lead mediator in US-backed ceasefire talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

“The Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas, which very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “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,” she said.

“However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.” Leavitt added that Trump directed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to “inform the Qataris of the impending attack”.

However, Qatar refuted the characterisation, with a spokesperson for the foreign ministry saying claims that the government had been “pre-informed of the attack are completely false”. “The call that was received from an American official came during the sound of the explosions that resulted from the Israeli attack in Doha,” Majed Al-Ansari wrote in a statement on X.

Hamas said the attack killed five of its members, but its main negotiating team survived. Among the dead was a Qatari security officer, the country’s interior ministry said. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decried the Israeli attack as “cowardly”, while condemning “any action targeting its security and sovereignty”.

The Gulf country had previously helped to broker a pause in fighting in Gaza in November 2023 and a six-week ceasefire in January 2025. Its role had been regularly praised by both the administration of former President Joe Biden and President Trump. Israel struck central Doha just days after Trump issued a warning to Hamas’s negotiating team as he pushed for a new ceasefire.

The US has repeatedly accused Hamas of stalling negotiations. Israel has been accused of repeatedly scuttling the talks. — Aljazeera