President Donald Trump praised Qatar for helping broker Hamas’ promised disarmament, renewing debate over Doha’s financial support for Gaza, its hosting of Hamas leaders and Israel’s previous approval of Qatari aid arrangements.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump’s decision to thank Qatar for helping secure an agreement to disarm Hamas has revived scrutiny of the Gulf nation’s long involvement in Gaza, including its financial support for the territory, its role as host to Hamas leaders and previous aid arrangements approved by Israeli governments.
Trump announced Thursday on Truth Social that the Board of Peace had reached an agreement for the “complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” calling it a “monumental step toward lasting peace and security.”
He credited Egypt, Qatar and Turkey for their mediation efforts.
Qatar’s role drew particular attention because former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had accused the country only days earlier of bearing responsibility for the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“Qatar bears responsibility for the October 7 massacre,” Bennett wrote on X.
The attack killed more than 1,200 people and resulted in the abduction of civilians, including infants.
“Qatar financed October 7. It continues to host and provide sanctuary in Doha to the leaders of the terrorist organization to this very day,” Bennett wrote. “They’ve never condemned the October 7 massacre. Instead, they celebrated the slaughter, murder and rape of Israeli civilians on October 7.”
Evidence collected after the attack included testimony and imagery indicating that women were subjected to sexual violence.
The BBC reported that “Video testimony of an eyewitness at the Nova music festival, shown to journalists by Israeli police, detailed the gang rape, mutilation and execution of one victim,” while videos recorded by Hamas and photographs taken afterward showed naked and bloodied women and suggested that attackers deliberately targeted women sexually.
Bennett’s criticism of Qatar has also drawn attention to actions taken while he was prime minister.
New York Post foreign policy and national security reporter Caitlin Doornbos noted on X that Bennett’s government approved an arrangement involving Qatar and the United Nations to provide financial assistance to Gaza in 2021.
The Jerusalem Post reported at the time that the agreement permitted Qatar to deliver cash payments to families in Gaza.
According to a Just the News report, then-Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel would be “overseeing the recipients.”
The deal was reached approximately one week before Bennett traveled to Washington to meet with then-President Joe Biden.
Qatar later signed another agreement in March 2022 with the United Nations Office for Project Services that supplied Gaza with fuel valued at more than $380 million.
The history of Qatari funding and mediation became more complicated after the Oct. 7 attack, as conflicting accounts emerged over whether the Biden administration sought the removal of Hamas leaders from Doha.
Dr. Majed Al Ansari, an adviser to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, said the Biden administration never formally asked Qatar to expel Hamas and instead wanted the group’s political office preserved so negotiations could continue.
“Since October 7, we were never asked to expel Hamas. Officially, we were never told to stop mediating,” Al Ansari said. “At the complete opposite, when we decided to suspend our mediation and we asked the Hamas leadership to leave Qatar because there was no purpose for them being there, we were asked by the Biden administration at the time to bring back Hamas to continue the mediation.”
Senior Biden administration officials offered a different account, telling Reuters in 2024 that Washington had asked Qatar to expel Hamas after the organization rejected a hostage agreement.
The Biden administration also did not seek the extradition of Hamas leaders for prosecution in the United States after the attack.
Al Ansari said Qatar later worked closely with the incoming Trump administration to continue negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
“The Trump administration, even before coming to the White House, was heavily engaged in the mediation process,” Al Ansari said. “Actually, the last ceasefire was accomplished because of President Trump’s resolution, because President Trump decided that there would be a ceasefire. And the proposal that was on the table now was the proposal of President Trump to end this war once and for all.”
Trump’s announcement also came shortly after federal auditors opened a review of a separate Gaza aid operation.
One week before the disarmament announcement, the USAID Office of Inspector General initiated an audit of a $30 million award to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
The funding was intended to support emergency food distribution in Gaza during 2025, but the organization stopped operating after terrorist attacks and growing international pressure.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was incorporated in Delaware on Nov. 11, 2024, as a private “charitable nonprofit.”
In September 2025, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Peter Welch of Vermont called on the State Department to stop funding the organization and increase oversight of its work.
“Starving civilians should not be shot at while desperately trying to reach food supplies […] the State Department should immediately cease funding GHF and transfer or restore funding to experienced aid organizations given the strong and growing evidence that GHF is failing to accomplish its humanitarian mission,” the senators wrote in their request to the department.
The new audit is intended to examine how the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation award was structured and approved, whether USAID followed applicable rules in granting the money and whether the State Department properly verified required milestones before releasing payments.
Trump’s praise for Qatar therefore places the country at the center of two competing narratives: one portraying Doha as an essential mediator capable of helping bring Hamas into a disarmament agreement, and another accusing it of sustaining the financial and political environment in which Hamas operated for years.
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