Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Donald Trump last week about the impending strike on Hamas leaders in Doha some 50 minutes before the attack, according to a Monday report.
Seven Israeli officials told Axios that the White House knew about the attack last Tuesday before missiles were launched. Trump said after the attack that the US was not given meaningful warning of the Doha strike, that he tried but did not have time to convey a warning to Qatar, and that he was “very unhappy” about the incident. He also told reporters on Sunday that Israel must be “very, very careful” about how it handles Qatar, which he called a “great ally.”
In fact, the Israeli notice left Trump enough time to call off the strike, according to three officials with direct knowledge cited in the report, saying Netanyahu called Trump at around 8 a.m. Washington time. The first reports of the explosions in Doha came some 50 minutes later.
“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.
“If Trump had wanted to stop it, he could have,” said a second official. “In practice, he didn’t.”
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The strike — which killed five non-leading members of Hamas and a Qatari security officer, but apparently none of its five key intended Hamas leadership targets — elicited fury from Arab governments, which convened for an emergency gathering Monday over the attack. The gathering, which was attended by leaders of states with full diplomatic ties to Israel, saw harsh condemnations of the Jewish state.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani (L) and Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani talk to US President Donald Trump, ahead of his departure at the end of the Qatari leg of his regional tour, at the Al-Udeid air base southwest of Doha on May 15, 2025. (Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
It was not clear from the Axios report what exactly was said on the Trump-Netanyahu call, nor was it clear whether Trump informed the Qataris while there was still time to avert the attack.
Israel had gone along with the White House version of events out of diplomatic considerations, said a third official, while a fourth said, “The Americans are putting on a show.”
A fifth official said the US administration had reasons to distance itself from the strike, and so “what they say publicly should be taken with a grain of salt.”
A sixth official said this was not the first time Trump had “made things up,” for political reasons, about his conversations with Israeli leaders.
However, in a statement released on X on Monday, Netanyahu insisted that Trump had not known in advance.
“The White House rendition of events is correct,” he wrote. “Israel’s action against Hamas leaders in Doha was a wholly independent Israeli operation. Israel initiated it, carried it out, and takes full responsibility.”
This handout picture released by the Qatar News Agency (QNA) shows Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (C) chairing the 2025 Arab-Islamic emergency summit in Doha on September 15, 2025. (Qatar News Agency / AFP)
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump also reiterated that he had not had knowledge of the attack in time to stop it and adding that Netanyahu “won’t be hitting Qatar” again.
Qatar is a key US ally in the Mideast, and hosts the largest American military base in the region. Doha has also been a main mediator in long-running negotiations for the release of hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and a post-conflict plan for the Strip.
The senior Hamas leaders who were targeted last week had reportedly gathered to review a framework for such a deal, proposed by the US.
On Friday, in the wake of the strike, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani had dinner with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance, as well as US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff.
The session followed an hour-long meeting that al-Thani had at the White House that day with Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Rubio traveled to Israel on Monday in the wake of the strike. On Tuesday, he will stop in Qatar, on his way to London for a state visit, a US official said.
A composite image of five members of Hamas’s leadership targeted by Israel in Qatar on September 9, 2025, L-R: Zaher Jabarin, Khaled Mashaal, Khalil al-Hayya, Muhammad Ismail Darwish, Nizar Awadallah. (Mahmud Hams/Louai Beshara/KHAMENEI.IR/AFP)
PM, next to Rubio, reiterates Israel ‘did it on our own. Period.’
In a gesture apparently meant to reduce blowback to Washington, Netanyahu repeated Monday, at a press conference alongside Rubio, that Israel’s decision to act against Hamas in Qatar was a “wholly independent decision.”
“We assume full responsibility,” he said. “We did it on our own. Period.”
Netanyahu also appeared to acknowledge that Israel did not kill its targets in the strike, but said it did not “fail” because it sent a message to Hamas leaders that nowhere is safe for them.
The US State Department said Monday that Rubio “will reaffirm America’s full support for Qatar’s security and sovereignty following Israel’s strike in Doha,” though the secretary of state also had said that the attack will not shake the US-Israel relationship.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio give a press statement, after their meeting at the Prime Minister Office in Jerusalem, on September 15, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/ Flash90)
The Gulf state has called on Washington to use its leverage to rein in Israel following the attack.
“We also expect our strategic partners in the United States to use their influence on Israel in order for it to stop this behavior… They have leverage and influence on Israel, and it’s about time that this leverage and influence be used,” Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary General Jasem Mohamed Al-Budaiwi said in a press conference following a summit in Doha that was called in response to the incident.
Agencies and Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
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