President Donald Trump (Shutterstock)
President Donald Trump rejects report claiming Israeli prime minister gave him advance notice of ballistic missile strike on Hamas gathering in Doha, Qatar.
By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump pushed back Monday on a report that he had been informed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel’s impending airstrike on a gathering of senior Hamas terrorists in Doha, Qatar, last week.
Speaking with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump rejected claims by Axios that Netanyahu notified him of the attack last Tuesday shortly before it was carried out.
“No, no he didn’t,” Trump said.
The president added that he learned about the attacks through news reports, “the same way you did.”
Last week, shortly after Israeli warplanes fired a volley of air-launched ballistic missiles at a meeting of Hamas’ politburo in the Qatari capital, Axios cited unnamed officials who claimed that Netanyahu had notified Trump about 50 minutes before the strike.
Trump, in turn, is said to have instructed special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to warn Qatar of the attack, while claiming that the US only became aware of the strike after the missiles had been launched.
However, Doha claims it received the warning 10 minutes after the missiles struck their target.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Israel did alert the US of the attack, but only after the missiles were fired, with no indication the notice was delivered personally by Netanyahu to Trump.
The report claimed that Israel did not specify the location of the target, though US space-based infrared sensors were able to track the missiles and enable the Pentagon to determine they were aimed at Doha.
The president assured reporters Monday that Israel’s attack on Qatar was a one-off strike and that Netanyahu “won’t be hitting Qatar again.”
Two senior Israeli officials who spoke with Axios last week claimed that Israel and the US had been in talks regarding the strike, adding that Trump never vetoed the plan.
“If Trump had wanted to stop it, he could have,” one of the officials said. “In practice, he didn’t.”
Six people, including the son of a senior Hamas official, his office manager, and three bodyguards, were killed in the strike, according to Hamas.
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