# Israeli officials: Doubts emerging over success of Doha strike **Channel:** CNN **Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fek1CItolkw **Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/fek1CItolkw ## Chapters - 0:00 — Israeli Strike Overview and Details - 2:09 — Global Reactions and Mediation Consequences - 3:27 — Last 48 Hours of Ceasefire Talks - 5:02 — Strike Casualties and Qatar Mediation Role - 6:25 — US Notification and Diplomatic Fallout - 7:57 — Israeli and Qatari Leadership Statements - 8:32 — White House Distancing and Frustration ## Transcript **[0:00] Speaker A:** In the wake of Tuesday's Israeli strike targeting Hamas negotiators on Qatari soil. The attack seen as a grave violation of Qatar's sovereignty and a major threat to the already flailing efforts to find an end to the war in Gaza and bring Israeli hostages home. Well, CN's Jeremy Dimon is standing by in Jerusalem. Jeremy, just bring us up to date on what we understand happened on Tuesday. The details of this strike by Israel on a residence here, not very far away from where I'm standing today in Doha, in Doha, which was housing a senior team negotiating for Hamas with the Qataris, who of course are lead mediators here, try and find an end, a solution, get an agreement for a ceasefire and a hostage deal. What do we understand happened? **[1:02] Speaker B:** Well, the Israeli military carried out this strike using 10 fighter jets firing directly at these residences where these senior Hamas leaders were believed to be. But it appears as of now, the evidence is growing that Israel failed in its attempt to to assassinate Hamas's senior leaders, including Hamas's chief negotiator, Khalil Al Haya. Hamas has said that the strike failed, that five Hamas members who were there were killed, but none of them were the senior leaders that Israel was targeting with this strike. Israeli officials are also beginning to acknowledge that they are growing increasingly pessimistic that this strike appears to not have struck its targets, not have been successful from the Israeli point of view. But that doesn't change the damage that this strike has already done to the future of the ceasefire and hostage release negotiations. And also, of course, the international fallout that we are continuing to watch about 24 hours after this strike actually took place. **[2:09] Speaker B:** Let's talk first about the United States, where we saw that kind of wishy washy statement from the White House press secretary suggesting that a strike on Qatar doesn't serve Israeli or US interests, but that a strike on Hamas does. But President Trump then later in the day signaled that he was quite unhappy about this strike, indicating that there was nothing positive about it. And then of course, we have the Qatari and Hamas's perspective. I mean, even if Israel didn't manage to kill Hamas chief negotiator, it nonetheless targeted him at a moment when he was sitting down to review this latest American proposal to reach a new cease fire and hostage release deal. So that will impact talks going forward. And then of course, there are the Qataris themselves. We heard directly from the Qatari Prime Minister yesterday, who was quite visibly upset about Israel having taken this action, making clear that while on the one hand, Qatar will never abandon its historic role as a diplomatic mediator. **[3:13] Speaker B:** On the other hand, he acknowledged that it's very difficult to see a viable path forward, at least to the current negotiations that were unfolding given this Israeli strike. **[3:27] Speaker A:** And let's just bring our viewers up to date on what we understand to have been happening in the sort of last 48 hours. The Qatari Prime Minister himself in negotiations, discussions with the senior Hamas negotiating team here in Doha on Monday night, late into the night. We then understand the Qatari team and they're working on this US initiative, a new Trump initiative, which would get all hostages released in the first instance and then would move on to working through negotiations for an end to this conflict, giving Hamas frankly very little sort of iron in the fire on what would happen next Monday night these negotiations were going on. We understand the Qatari Prime Minister was putting a lot of pressure on Hamas to respond positively to this initiative. Qatari negotiators as we understand it then spent the wee hours of the morning on the phone to senior Israeli negotiators. **[4:37] Speaker A:** And the understanding was that by late afternoon on Tuesday, Qatari negotiators would be going back to Hamas to get that response again putting pressure on them to respond positively to this deal that was supposed to happen late on Tuesday afternoon into the evening at 3:46. **[5:02] Speaker A:** We now know the residence that the Hamas negotiators were staying in was bombed by what Israel describes as a precise strike. Six killed in that strike, five from Hamas, albeit relatively low level operatives as we understand it. And one Qatari security official who was detailed to to that property. Qatar hosts Hamas here at the request in the past sort of 15 years by the U.S. administration because it has this role in mediation, has this opportunity along with the Egyptians to mediate between Hamas and Israel in return. Of course part of this is a sort of guarantee from the United States that they are safe and secure here. And the aloud a base, a huge US Base is here in, in the country. It's the biggest in the region. This attack went under the radar, it went undetected. Do we understand how that happened and what the US Knew or didn't know about the this pending so strike and what happens next with regard US Cassidy relations at this point? **[6:25] Speaker B:** Well, it certainly seems like the United States got notification fairly late in the process. It was only yesterday morning, in the hours before this strike actually took place that the United States learned about it. Interestingly, the Israelis communicated that to the United States through military channels and not through the kind of high level political and diplomatic channels that the US And Israel maintain that in and of itself suggests, you know, that it would take some time for it to get from the military channels all the way up the chain of command and then for that information to then make its way to President Trump and senior White House officials. And that seems to be why by the time Steve Witkoff was directed by the president to call the Qataris to give them a heads up, the strike had just happened, according to Qatari officials. You know, in terms of the US Qatari relationship, we heard President Trump clearly, you know, on the phone yesterday with the Emir of Qatar signaling that he wants to move forward with this, you know, mutual defense pact between the two countries in order to give the Qatari some assurances going forward. **[7:38] Speaker B:** But really, the primary fallout here, I think, is going to be diplomatic. It's going to be as it relates to these hostage and cease fire negotiations and really the question of where can things go from here after there's been so much trust broken and sovereignty violated by these Israeli strikes. **[7:57] Speaker A:** Thank you, Jeremy. And the Israeli Prime Minister, in the wake of these strikes, suggesting these, this action could actually opened the door to peace. A counter argument from the Qatar prime Minister late yesterday who described Netanyahu as narcissistic. He described Israel as a rogue state in the region, as a bully, and he said that these strikes were intent on sabotaging the latest efforts to find a deal. **[8:32] Speaker A:** Let's bring in Elena Train, who is at the White House. It does seem as if President Trump and his administration, Elena, are sort of trying to distance themselves from this attack. He has certainly said that this action doesn't square with both America's and Israel's goals here. Can you just explain what we understand to be going on behind the scenes at the White House and why it is that Donald Trump is seemingly trying to distance himself from the action by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? **[9:09] Speaker C:** I think there are two key reasons to that, Becky, and you're right. There is, on one hand, growing frustration in this building behind me with advisors. But then there's also that public frustration that they are really trying to, to convey. And there's two reasons, like I said, for that. One is that they were not given a big heads up on this. Actually, the President wasn't even formed himself by Israel before these strikes happened. He actually learned about it from the, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Kaine. And then as Jeremy laid out, he then quickly directed Steve Wyckoff, his Middle east envoy, who has a strong relationship with the Qataris, that this was coming but they made very clear yesterday through the White House press secretary, through the president's own words, that this was a strike. And the decision to do this was made by the prime minister, Netanyahu, not by Donald Trump.