President Donald Trump on Thursday announced on Truth Social the “complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza,” calling the news a “monumental step toward lasting peace and security.”

In his post, Trump thanked three countries for mediating the disarmament – Egypt, Qatar and Turkey. Qatar’s inclusion in the mediation is curious, given the country’s recent history in the region: Just days before Trump’s announcement, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett posted on X that “Qatar bears responsibility for the October 7 massacre,” referring to the 2023 massacre in Israel led by Hamas that entailed the rape and murder of more than 1,200 people, and taking of civilian and infant hostages. 

Hamas enjoyed Qatar's largesse for years

“Qatar financed October 7. It continues to host and provide sanctuary in Doha to the leaders of the terrorist organization to this very day,” Bennett wrote. “They've never condemned the October 7 massacre. Instead, they celebrated the slaughter, murder and rape of Israeli civilians on October 7.”

The BBC reported that "Video testimony of an eyewitness at the Nova music festival, shown to journalists by Israeli police, detailed the gang rape, mutilation and execution of one victim," and that videos of naked and bloodied women filmed by Hamas on the day of the attack, and photographs of bodies taken at the sites afterward, suggest that women were sexually targeted by their attackers.

Yet, as New York Post foreign policy and national security reporter Caitlin Doornbos pointed out on X, Bennett oversaw a deal between the United Nations and Qatar to provide aid to Gaza while he was prime minister in 2021. That deal, The Jerusalem Post reported at the time, would allow Qatar to send cash payments to families in Gaza. Then-Israel Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that Israel would be “overseeing the recipients.”

Another agreement between Qatar and the United Nations Office for Project Services, reviewed by Just the News and signed in March 2022, provided more than $380 million worth of fuel to Gaza.

The 2021 deal occurred just one week before Bennett flew to Washington, D.C., to meet with then-President Joe Biden.

Biden administration didn’t seek extradition of Hamas leadership 

Two years later, after the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, Biden allegedly failed to ask Qatar to expel Hamas leadership and even asked the country to restore the terrorist group’s offices in Doha to allow for continued negotiations, Just the News reported last year. Dr. Majed Al Ansari, an advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, told the Just the News, No Noise TV Show at the time that the Biden administration didn’t seek extradition of Hamas leadership for U.S. prosecution following the terrorist attack.

"Since October 7, we were never asked to expel Hamas. Officially, we were never told to stop mediating," Al Ansari said at the time. "At the complete opposite, when we decided to suspend our mediation and we asked the Hamas leadership to leave Qatar because there was no purpose for them being there, we were asked by the Biden administration at the time to bring back Hamas to continue the mediation."

Senior administration officials, to the contrary, told Reuters in 2024 that the Biden administration had sought the terrorist group’s expulsion. In that same interview with Just the News, Al Ansari said Qatar was working with the Trump administration to broker peace between Hamas and Israel.

"The Trump administration, even before coming to the White House, was heavily engaged in the mediation process," Al Ansari said. "Actually, the last ceasefire was accomplished because of President Trump's resolution, because President Trump decided that there would be a ceasefire. And the proposal that was on the table now was the proposal of President Trump to end this war once and for all.”

"Cease funding for GHF" Warren and other Senators demand

Just one week before Trump’s Thursday night announcement, the USAID Office of Inspector General initiated an audit of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) award. The $30 million award was supposed to provide emergency food aid in Gaza in 2025, but terrorist attacks and international pressure forced the GHF to stop operations. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a private corporation registered on November 11, 2024, as a “charitable nonprofit” in Delaware. 

In September of last year, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Peter Welch, D-Vt. wrote to the Department of State demanding more oversight, and stating that “Starving civilians should not be shot at while desperately trying to reach food supplies [...] the State Department should immediately cease funding GHF and transfer or restore funding to experienced aid organizations given the strong and growing evidence that GHF is failing to accomplish its humanitarian mission.”

The newly announced audit aims to assess how the GHF award was designed and granted, determine the extent to which USAID followed rules about providing awards, and to determine whether the State Department adequately verified the award milestones before providing payments to GHF.