TRUMP BLASTS ISRAELI STRIKE IN QATAR

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has condemned Israel's decision to strike a meeting of senior Hamas leaders in Qatar, blasting Israeli leaders for hitting another close US ally as he has tried to broker an end to nearly two years of war in Gaza.

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Trump said that he did not greenlight the attack, which humiliated and alarmed a close partner government of Washington that has been working with the United States to help broker an elusive peace. The attack on Hamas leaders as they were considering a US proposal to end the war was likely to deal a setback to efforts to reach an accord. Trump has said that achieving peace in Gaza is a priority, and as recently as Sunday declared that he was renewing his efforts to strike a deal there.

"I was very unhappy about the strike", Trump told reporters. "Very unhappy about every aspect. We've got to get the hostages back." In the sometimes held-back world of diplomatic rhetoric, Trump's declaration amounted to an acknowledgment that Israeli leaders felt sufficiently unbound from obligations to Washington to undertake military action that might complicate Trump's goal of ending the Gaza conflict.