When Donald Trump visited Qatar in May, he promised to defend the tiny, wealthy emirate and its rulers. “We are going to protect this country,” Trump declared on his state visit, where he was treated like royalty and honored in gilded palaces. “It’s a very special place, with a special royal family … They are great people and they are going to be protected by the United States.”

Over two decades, Qatar spent billions of dollars to upgrade the largest US military base in the Middle East and spent many more billions to buy US warplanes and other weapons. In May, as the president prepared to visit, the Qatari government donated a luxury Boeing jet, a “palace in the sky” valued at $400m, which is now being refitted so Trump can use it as Air Force One.

But none of that, including Trump’s exuberant promises of protection, stopped Israel from attacking Qatar on Tuesday. Israel launched a brazen airstrike against a group of Hamas leaders who were meeting in the country’s capital, Doha, to consider the latest Gaza ceasefire proposal submitted by Israel and the US. The senior Hamas officials, including its top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, survived the attack but six others were killed.

That Israel was trying to kill the negotiators – and to destroy Qatar’s role as a mediator between Hamas and western powers – is no surprise. For nearly two years, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has consistently obstructed ceasefire talks and torpedoed potential deals by adding new demands or changing his mind. And when that hasn’t worked, Netanyahu has resorted to

© The Guardian