Doha — Israel’s surprise airstrike on Hamas offices in Qatar has sent shockwaves through the region, testing the boundaries of the relationship between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and raising questions about the durability of a partnership long seen as unshakable. An initial account of the strike’s regional impact was carried by The Eastern Herald’s report on Israel’s strike in Qatar, which detailed swift condemnation across the Gulf and fears of a widening war in Gaza.
The strike, which killed six people including a Qatari security officer, missed its intended high-value Hamas targets. Instead, it triggered a diplomatic storm in the Gulf and angered Trump, who publicly said he was “very unhappy” with the decision to strike without prior consultation. For Washington, the timing could not be worse. Qatar hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, and any unilateral Israeli action there risks destabilizing America’s strategic presence and undermining ongoing mediation channels.
The episode recalls Netanyahu’s past decisions to bypass US coordination, such as earlier operations that ignored Washington’s warnings, underscoring an escalating pattern of unilateralism. In Gaza, the consequences are immediate. Recent coverage has documented mass displacement under Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza City, with families scrambling south amid bombardment, amplifying a humanitarian disaster already described by the UN as a man-made famine crisis.
For Trump, who has long cast himself as a dealmaker capable of imposing stability, the Doha strike complicates any push to widen Arab normalization under the Abraham Accords. Gulf governments, already wary of Israel’s scorched-earth campaign in Gaza, view the strike as reckless and counterproductive to the region’s security calculus. The optics also collide with Washington’s insistence that it is working to de-escalate, even as coverage has shown aid-site carnage in Gaza tied to policies critics say weaponize relief.
Still, a formal rupture looks unlikely. The White House remains aligned with Israel’s stated objective to “fundamentally weaken” Hamas, despite mounting civilian costs. In this context, technology’s role in the conflict remains under scrutiny following reporting that Microsoft enabled Israeli surveillance in Gaza, fueling public anger across the region and beyond.
In Moscow, the reaction was sharp. Russian officials framed the strike as proof that Washington has lost control of its closest ally. The critique dovetails with a broader narrative of multipolar pushback, one that features prominently in debates about BRICS-led de-dollarization, where Russia and its partners champion an alternative economic architecture.
For Trump, the real test may be whether repeated blindsides from Jerusalem imperil his claims of delivering order while retaining US sway in the Gulf. With Arab capitals openly questioning Washington’s judgment, each unilateral move by Israel imposes new political costs on the White House and entrenches a perception that the administration is complicit in Gaza’s devastation. As Reuters reported, the Doha strike underscores the “hot and cold” nature of the Trump-Netanyahu alliance: resilient in aims, brittle in execution, and increasingly exposed to the region’s backlash.
