While still in the Oval Office for his meeting with President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally called Qatar’s prime minister Monday to apologize for Israel’s strike on the nation’s capital earlier this month, according to Axios correspondent Barak Ravid.
Israel launched a strike on Doha, Qatar earlier this month intended to eliminate Hamas leadership, who were among those then involved with ceasefire negotiations. In a rare rebuke, Trump said he was “very unhappy” with the strike, and behind the scenes, was reportedly “infuriated.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke on the phone with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and apologized for the harm to Qatar's sovereignty in the strike on Doha and expressed sorrow for the killing of a Qatari security officer in the strike, according to a source familiar with the details,” Ravid wrote in a social media post on X. “The conversation took place during the meeting between Netanyahu and President Trump at the White House.”
Given Trump’s apparent disdain for the strike, critics online speculated that Netanyahu was compelled to apologize on the spot by Trump during the pair’s meeting.
“When Mom forces you to make up with the neighbor's son,” wrote X user “נאור.”
The strike threatened to jeopardize the United States’ relationship with Qatar, which for decades has been a key Middle East ally and has been designated as a major non-NATO ally by the United States. Al-Thani reportedly told U.S. special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff that Qatar would reevaluate its security partnership with the United States, and “maybe find some other partners.”