Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “very unhappy about every aspect” of the Israeli strike in Doha and would be giving a full statement on the issue on Wednesday.
I’m not thrilled about it,” Trump said as he arrived at a Washington restaurant.
“It’s not a good situation but I will say this: We want the hostages back, but we’re not thrilled about the way it went down today.”
.Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said the airstrikes threatened to derail the peace talks Qatar has been mediating between Hamas and Israel.
Trump said he considered hitting Hamas was a worthy goal, but he felt badly that the attack took place in the Gulf Arab state, which is a major non-NATO ally of Washington and where the Palestinian Islamist group has long had its political base.
Qatar is a security partner of the United States and host to al-Udeid Air Base, the largest U.S. military facility in the Middle East.
It has acted as a mediator alongside Egypt in talks between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza, which appears to be increasingly elusive.
Hamas said five of its members had been killed in the attack, including the son of Hamas’s exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator Khalil al-Hayya.
It said Israel had failed in what Hamas called an attempt to assassinate the group’s ceasefire negotiation team.
