Donald Trump felt 'betrayed' by Israel's surprise attack on Qatar, sparking a major decision that led to a historic peace deal and secured the release of Israeli hostages. 

Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff revealed that the unprecedented strikes in Doha on September 9 left the White House seething, derailing peace talks with the Hamas negotiators it targeted.

The strikes forced the Hamas leaders 'underground', abruptly halting talks that Trump's team had been holding with negotiators just one day prior, the pair told CBS's 60 Minutes.

'We woke up the next morning to find out there had been this attack,' Witkoff said.

It marked the first crack in a relationship that was seen as unbreakable - Trump's decades-long friendship with Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu that had defined his Middle East policy since the first administration.

The White House was oblivious to the Israeli prime minister's plans to strike Doha, Witkoff explained, and said he and Kushner 'felt betrayed' by the attack.

CBS anchor Lesley Stahl responded that she heard Trump was 'furious' when he heard of the strikes, as Kushner said they triggered an abrupt change of course in the president's approach to Israel.

'I think he felt like the Israelis were getting a little bit out of control,' Kushner said. 'It was time to be very strong and stop them from doing things that he felt were not in their long term interest.'

The top US officials said the targeting of the very leaders that they were actively negotiating with was seen as a red line that Netanyahu dared to cross.

'It had a metastasizing effect,' Witkoff said.

'The Qataris were critical to the negotiation, as were the Egyptians and the Turks, and we had lost the confidence of the Qataris.

'And so Hamas went underground, and it was very, very difficult to get to them.'

Witkoff said losing the Qataris in that moment almost sunk their hopes of achieving a peace deal, because after the strikes in Doha, 'it became very evident how important and how critical that role was.'