The Israeli strike on Qatar undermined Gaza ceasefire efforts, US special envoy Steve Witkoff has said

US President Donald Trump's senior negotiators in the Gaza peace talks have said they felt "betrayed" after Israel launched an airstrike on Qatar during mediation efforts.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, and Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, were key members of the president's "dealmaking consortium" working to finalize a ceasefire and hostage exchange plan. They took part in talks in Egypt in early October, weeks after Israel struck Doha, killing several people and nearly derailing the process.

In an interview with CBS aired on Friday, Witkoff said he learned about the attack the next morning.

"I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed," he told the host.

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

Qatar, a US ally and longtime mediator in the Gaza ceasefire, accused Israel of "state terrorism" after the strike.

Trump, who expressed solidarity with Doha, later clarified that the attack had been ordered solely by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the White House learning of it too late to intervene.

Asked about Trump's reaction, Kushner said the president felt Israel was "getting a little bit out of control in what they were doing."

"It was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests," he added.

The strike on the Doha residential neighborhood, aimed at senior Hamas officials attending negotiations, killed six people, including a Qatari security officer, but failed to eliminate the group's negotiating delegation or senior leadership. Netanyahu later apologized to Qatar, expressing "deep regret" over the unintended deaths.

The ceasefire agreement - signed in Sharm el-Sheikh by Trump and mediators from Egypt, Qatar, and Türkiye - called for Israel to withdraw from parts of Gaza and release 20 Israeli hostages in exchange for 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

(RT.com)