Responding to statements made by Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior adviser to US President Donald Trump—who asserted that the American administration exploited international diplomatic backlash following Israel’s targeted strike in Doha roughly a year ago to force a hostage deal—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified on Sunday evening that the breakthrough was forged through Israel’s own operational resolve.
“The Prime Minister’s decision to send the IDF into Gaza City and strike Hamas’s senior leadership in Qatar, combined with the immense pressure applied by President Trump, are what compelled Hamas to drop its demands and agree to release all remaining hostages held in Gaza,” a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office affirmed.
The official Israeli response follows an address Kushner delivered earlier Sunday during an official visit to Ukraine. In his speech, Kushner characterized the deep-penetration raid in Doha as an operational failure that isolated Israel on the global stage, openly revealing that decision-makers in Washington seized upon that isolation as strategic leverage to push leaders in Jerusalem toward signing the agreement.
The pinpoint strike targeting Hamas’s senior command echelon in Doha occurred as the terror group’s leadership convened to review President Trump’s diplomatic framework. At the time, Israel’s defense establishment emphasized that the mission was greenlit with full consensus across the political and security echelons in response to a string of lethal terror attacks, underscoring that it was an autonomous Israeli undertaking executed under sovereign operational responsibility.
Although the strike initially triggered international friction and prompted Doha to suspend its mediation efforts temporarily, Israeli officials now firmly maintain that unrelenting, decisive force on the battlefield remained the foundational pillar that ultimately broke Hamas’s intransigence.