US President Donald Trump’s administration is reportedly growing frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after Israel bombed a meeting of Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday while they were reportedly gathered to discuss a US-proposed framework for a hostage-ceasefire deal.

Trump has made it clear that he was displeased by Israel’s strike — in no small part because it targeted Hamas leaders inside Qatar, a close US ally — saying in its wake that it did not “advance Israel or America’s goals.” But he also stressed publicly that he believed “eliminating Hamas” was a “worthy goal.”

Yet a report by Politico on Thursday suggested that the Trump administration was more frustrated by the situation than it has publicly let on.

“Every time they’re making progress, it seems like he bombs someone,” a person close to Trump’s national security team told Politico. “That’s why the president and his aides are so frustrated with Netanyahu.”

It was unclear whether the strike would impact efforts to reach a hostage release and ceasefire deal, but Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said on Thursday that the assassination attempt on the group’s senior leadership was “an assassination of the entire negotiation process.”

Asked how the strike would affect the negotiation efforts, Trump told Israel’s Channel 14 at a press gaggle Thursday: “Hopefully, it won’t affect it at all.”

“We want the hostages out, and we want them out soon. Hopefully it won’t affect it,” the president repeated.

Meanwhile, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told the UN Security Council on Thursday that his country “will continue [its] humanitarian and diplomatic role without any hesitation in order to stop the bloodshed.”

An Arab diplomat involved in mediation efforts had told The Times of Israel earlier Thursday, however, that all mediation efforts, previously led primarily by Qatar and Egypt, had halted since the Tuesday strike.

A Qatari official, granted anonymity, told Politico that the Gulf state’s “focus is on our national security and sovereignty, which were directly threatened by this attack. All other political considerations have taken a back seat.”

“When one party chooses to bomb the mediator and one of the negotiating delegations, what kind of talks can be considered valid?” the official said.

A spate of senior Hamas leaders were targeted upon gathering in Doha on Tuesday, reportedly to discuss a US-proposed framework for a deal with Jerusalem to release the terror group’s hostages and end the war in Gaza.

The results of Israel’s attack — the country’s first bombing on the soil of Qatar, which hosts a major US military base — are still not clear, some three days later; Israeli officials are said to believe, however, that the strike failed to kill most of its targets.

In the wake of the attack, Trump said Israel did not give the White House adequate warning, and that he attempted to alert the Qatari government about the assassination effort but that phone calls from his Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff came “too late.”

The president added on social media: “Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace, does not advance Israel or America’s goals.”

US said to suspect Netanyahu sabotaging hostage talks

Politico reported Thursday, citing a US official and a person close to Trump’s national security team, that the US president is frustrated with Netanyahu and suspects the premier may be intentionally sabotaging the hostage negotiations.

The official said Trump’s “inability to control Netanyahu” has particularly frustrated the White House when it comes to actions in countries like Qatar, as well as Syria or elsewhere, in which the US is also involved and has its own interests.

However, the official said, he was not aware of any plans by the administration to penalize the Israeli premier.

The two sources also told Politico that the White House has been working to calm down the Qataris and will discuss the strike and the status of negotiations over Gaza with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.

The Qatari prime minister will meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Washington said, and is also expected to meet with Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Witkoff, according to several reports.

On Thursday, at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, al-Thani said Israel’s strike went “beyond any borders, any limitations,” and that “Israel is trying to rearrange the region by force.”

But, he said, “we will continue our humanitarian and diplomatic role without any hesitation in order to stop the bloodshed.”

Al-Thani also asserted that “extremists that rule Israel today do not care about the hostages — otherwise, how do we justify the timing of this attack?”

The Gulf state leader said his country fully supports “mediation and the peaceful settlement of disputes, and Qatar’s role is being appreciated worldwide.”

He gave no indication of any next steps.

Hostage families meet with Trump, Macron

Trump, who has backed Israel throughout the multifront war and whose administration was crucial in brokering a partial hostage-truce deal in January, met again on Wednesday with a group of hostages’ families, as well as former captives.

Participating in the meeting with Trump were Witkoff and Rubio.

Other hostages’ families met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace, speaking to the European leader for some two hours.

The meeting came ahead of Macron’s departure for the UN General Assembly, which he’s made the focus of a campaign for Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state, against Israel’s wishes.

Macron assured the relatives that the “hostages have been an inseparable part of his daily agenda” since their abduction on October 7, 2023, and “pledged that he remains aware of the supreme importance of their release with regard to ending the war,” according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

“Macron promised he would carry the families’ words with him on his way to New York, and that he hopes the war will soon end and all the hostages will return home,” the statement added.

“We urge decision-makers in Israel and around the world—no new chapter in the Middle East is possible without the return of all 48 hostages: the living for rehabilitation and the murdered for proper burial. This is the highest moral obligation.”

A delegation of hostage families…

— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) September 10, 2025

The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

Terror groups in Gaza still hold 47 of those hostages, of whom 20-22 are believed to still be alive. Hamas also holds the body of an Israeli soldier killed in 2014.

Hamas said last month, after rejecting previous offers for a phased hostage-truce deal, that it had accepted a US proposal that Israel had sought for several months.

However, the development came after Jerusalem had already changed its position, declaring it would no longer accept a phased deal and would only negotiate for the release of all the hostages at once.

The terror group has said it is willing to end the war, but has not accepted Israel’s conditions, which include Hamas’s disarmament, the demilitarization of Gaza, and a new government for the Strip that includes neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.