US negotiators say Israeli strike on Qatar ‘shattered trust’ during Gaza talks

ISTANBUL

Two of US President Donald Trump’s key negotiators on the Gaza ceasefire deal said they were “very upset” by Israel’s missile strike in September on a compound in Doha, Qatar that housed Hamas negotiators during sensitive peace efforts, describing the incident as a severe blow to “trust” and regional mediation efforts.

In an extended interview aired Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is also currently serving as an informal adviser to his administration, said the Israeli strike “violated a lot of the trust that we felt we deserved from the Israeli side,” adding that it “was not a smart strategic move.”

US Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff echoed the frustration, saying both he and Kushner felt “betrayed” after the attack, which occurred as talks between US, Israeli and Qatari officials were making progress toward a ceasefire and hostage deal.

“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.”

According to the pair, the bombing “crossed a line” for US mediators and temporarily derailed negotiations, isolating Qatar — a key intermediary between Washington and Hamas — and forcing Hamas negotiators to go underground.

“We had lost the confidence of the Qataris,” Witkoff said. “That attack had a metastasizing effect.”

Kushner said Trump personally intervened, urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize to Qatar’s leadership.

“That apology was pivotal,” Witkoff noted. “It was the linchpin that got us to the next place.”

The strike highlighted tensions between US and Israeli approaches to the Gaza ceasefire talks.

Kushner said Washington’s strategy relied on “trust and pragmatic realism,” warning that “breaking that trust” risked undermining long-term stability.

Witkoff and Kushner recalled a pivotal Oct. 8 meeting in Egypt with Hamas’ chief negotiator — held just a month after the Doha attack. The negotiator, Witkoff said, had survived the Israeli strike but lost his son.

“We expressed our condolences to him for the loss of his son,” Witkoff said. “I told him that I had lost a son and that we were both members of a really bad club — parents who have buried children.”

Kushner described the emotional exchange as “very interesting,” saying it transformed the atmosphere of the meeting.

“It turned from a negotiation with a terrorist group to seeing two human beings showing vulnerability with each other,” he said.

The Sept. 9 strike on Doha took place amid intense US-led negotiations to end the Gaza war and secure the release of Israeli hostages.

Qatar, alongside Egypt and Türkiye, has served as a central mediator in indirect talks between Israel and Hamas. The incident prompted a rare direct apology from Netanyahu to Qatari officials, after which negotiations resumed and ultimately produced the Trump administration’s 20-point plan for peace in the region.