Desk Report:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed US President Donald Trump last week of the attack on Hamas leaders in Doha about 50 minutes before the attack.
This was claimed by the US news agency Axios on Monday.
Seven Israeli officials told Axios that the White House knew about the attack before the missiles were fired at Doha on September 9. Trump said after the attack that the US had not been given any significant warning about the Doha attack; that he had tried to warn Qatar but had not had time and that he was “very unhappy” about the incident.
Trump also told reporters on Sunday that Israel had to be “very careful” about how it dealt with Qatar, because he sees Qatar as a “great ally.”
However, the report, citing three Israeli officials with direct knowledge of the Doha attack, said that Netanyahu’s message gave Trump enough time to call off the attack. The Israeli prime minister called Trump at around 8 a.m. local time in Washington. The first reports of the explosion in Doha came about 50 minutes later.
A senior Israeli official told Axios that Netanyahu and Trump had discussed the attack on the day of the attack first at a political level, then through military channels. Trump did not say “no.”
Another Israeli official said that if Trump had wanted to stop the attack, he could have. In fact, he did not.
The attack in Doha killed five low-ranking Hamas members and a Qatari security guard. However, five senior Hamas figures who were at the scene were unharmed.
Arab countries reacted angrily to the incident and held an emergency meeting on Monday. The meeting was attended by leaders of countries with full diplomatic relations with Israel, and they strongly condemned Israel.
The Axios report did not clarify what exactly was said in the Trump-Netanyahu conversation or whether Trump gave Qatar a last-minute warning.
Source: The Times of Israel
