Witkoff says he and Kushner ‘felt a little bit betrayed’ by Israeli strike in Qatar

US President Donald Trump felt the “Israelis were getting a little bit out of control” after Israel’s botched September 9 strike on Hamas’s leadership in Doha, his son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner said in comments broadcast Friday.

The comment came during a joint interview with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on CBS’s 60 Minutes. The interview with the two architects of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal will air in full on Sunday.

“I think both Jared and I felt, I just feel we felt a little bit betrayed,” said Witkoff of Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders gathered in the capital of Qatar, a key mediator in the ceasefire negotiations.

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

Kushner, referring to Israel, said the strike led Trump to realize “that it was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long-term interests.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid later wrote on X that the interview was an “earthquake” and, referring to Kushner’s latter comment, said that “no Israeli government has ever been described this way by an American administration.”

Exclusive: Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and special envoy Steve Witkoff give a behind-the-scenes look at the tense moments leading up to the ceasefire and hostage deal after an Israeli bombing threatened to derail the agreement.

“[Trump] felt like the Israelis… pic.twitter.com/WtZpJcYHTG

— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 17, 2025

“After the failed attack on Doha, Trump thought Netanyahu had lost control, and imposed a deal on him that Netanyahu didn’t want,” said Lapid, who hailed the Doha strike at the time. “The ’60 Minutes’ interview proves that it could have been arranged for Egypt to govern Gaza and help us fight Hamas. Instead, Netanyahu’s lack of control led to the entry of Turkey and Qatar, two of Hamas’s ideological partners.”

Trump said after the attack on Doha that he was “very unhappy” with Israel about the strike on the “strong” US ally, and that he did not receive a meaningful advance warning from Israel.

He has since committed the US to defend Qatar in case of a future attack, and seen to it that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Qatar for the strike, which failed to kill any of its targets but did kill a few lower-level Hamas members as well as a Qatari guard.

This frame grab taken from an AFPTV footage shows smoke billowing following an Israeli strike on the Hamas headquarters in Doha, Qatar, September 9, 2025. (PENNEY / AFPTV / AFP)

With Netanyahu’s approval, Qatar sent in Hamas in Gaza millions of dollars of cash on a monthly basis for years until the terror group stormed southern Israel on October 7, 2023, to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.

Top aides to Netanyahu are also under investigation for alleged criminal ties to the Gulf state, with which Israel has no formal ties.

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