Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed President Trump that Israel planned to launch airstrikes against Hamas officials in Qatar shortly before the attack took place, and Trump didn’t oppose the plan, Axios reported on Monday, citing several Israeli officials.
In the wake of the Israeli bombing of Qatar, a major non-NATO ally of the US, the White House claimed that by the time it learned about Israel’s plans to strike Doha, it was too late to stop it. Trump himself also claimed that he was not notified about Israel’s plans and that he was “very unhappy” about the attack.
The Israeli officials speaking to Axios said that while Netanyahu informed Trump of his plans to bomb Doha relatively late in the game, there was still time for the strikes to be called off. Three Israeli officials said Netanyahu notified Trump at about 8:00 am Washington, DC time and that the strikes hit Doha at 8:51.
“Trump knew about the strike before the missiles were launched. First there was a discussion on the political level between Netanyahu and Trump, and afterwards through military channels. Trump didn’t say no,” a senior Israeli official told Axios.
A second senior Israeli official said that if Trump “had wanted to stop it, he could have. In practice, he didn’t.” Both officials claimed that if the US opposed the attack, Israel would have called it off.
The claims from Israeli officials align with Israeli media reports on the day of the strikes that said the US had given Israel a green light to go ahead with the bombing, which killed five lower-level Hamas officials and one Qatari security officer. A report from Middle East Eye, which cited US and regional officials, said that Trump had “blessed” Israel’s attack on Doha.
Israeli officials speaking to Axios said that Israel had decided to go along with the US claims that it wasn’t informed about the plan to strike Doha. “On our side, it was decided to help them with that for the sake of the US-Israel relationship,” one official said.
Following the bombing, Netanyahu released a statement claiming that the airstrikes were “a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility.”
