US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Israel's attack on Qatar targeting Hamas members will not cause any change in relations between Tel Aviv and Washington.
"Obviously, we were not happy about it; the president was not happy about it," Rubio told reporters on Saturday before departing for Britain and Israel.
"It's not going to change the nature of our relationship with the Israelis, but we are going to have to talk about it — primarily, what impact does this have" on diplomatic efforts to reach a truce in Gaza.
Israel targeted a residential compound on Tuesday that was housing Hamas leaders in Doha.
The attack killed five Hamas members and a Qatari security official, who were discussing a new deal proposed by the US to end the carnage in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 64,000 people since October 2023.
Qatar, along with the US and Egypt, has been a mediator in negotiations to end the genocide.
Netanyahu doubles down on attack
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said that killing Hamas chiefs living in Qatar would remove the main obstacle to releasing all hostages and ending the carnage in Gaza.
"The Hamas terrorist chiefs living in Qatar don't care about the people in Gaza. They blocked all ceasefire attempts in order to endlessly drag out the war," Netanyahu said in a post on X.
Hamas has described the Doha attack as an attempt by Israel to derail the ceasefire negotiations, and said it would not change the group's terms for ending the genocide in Gaza.
After Israel's attack on Doha, Tel Aviv has attacked a total of six countries in the region, including Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Qatar.
