Qatar has told Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel it will stall its efforts to mediate a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal until they show “willingness and seriousness” to resume talks, its foreign ministry said on Saturday.
The Gulf country has been working alongside the United States and Egypt for months on fruitless talks between the warring sides in Gaza and any disengagement from that process could further complicate efforts to reach a deal.
The Qatari ministry also said press reports on the future of the Hamas political office in Doha were inaccurate without specifying how. Reuters had on Friday quoted a US official saying Washington had asked Qatar to expel the group and that Doha had passed this message on to Hamas.
An official briefed on the matter also said on Saturday that Qatar had concluded that with its mediation efforts paused, Hamas’ political office there “no longer serves its purpose.”
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But three Hamas officials speaking off the record said the group had not been informed by Qatar that its leaders were no longer welcome in the country.
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Qatar has hosted Hamas political leaders since 2012 as part of a deal with the US, and the group’s presence there has facilitated the progress of talks.
“Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago during the last attempts to reach an agreement that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in the round,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said.
“Qatar will resume those efforts with its partners when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war.”
Qatar is highly likely to return to the efforts if both sides show “serious political willingness” to reach a deal on the war in Gaza, according to one spokesperson. There was no official response from Hamas or Israel.
The latest round of talks in mid-October failed to produce a deal, with Hamas rejecting a short-term ceasefire proposal. Israel has previously rejected some proposals for longer truces. Disagreements have centred on the long-term future of Hamas and Israel’s presence in Gaza.
Eslewhere on Saturday, three separate Israeli strikes have killed at least 16 people including women and children in Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.
There is no end in sight to Israel’s campaigns against Hamas militants in Gaza or Hizbullah in Lebanon, where Israel’s military said that it struck command centres and other militant infrastructure overnight in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
One of the strikes hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City’s eastern Tufah neighbourhood, killing at least six people, Gaza’s health ministry said.
Two local journalists, a pregnant woman and a child were among the dead.
The Israeli army said the strike targeted a militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, offering no evidence or further detail.
Another seven people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis where displaced people were sheltering, according to a Nasser Hospital spokesperson.
It said the dead included two women and a child. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the blast.
Meanwhile, Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli strike hit tents in the courtyard of central Gaza’s main hospital, including one serving as a police point.
At least three people were killed and a local journalist was hurt, Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah said. It was the eighth Israeli attack on the compound since March.
COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, said on Saturday that 11 aid trucks containing food, water and medical equipment had reached the far north of the enclave, including the urban refugee camp at Jabaliya.
It is the first time any aid has reached the area since Israel began a fresh military campaign there last month.
But not all the aid reached the agreed drop-off points, according to a spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme, which was involved in the delivery process.
In Jabaliya, Israeli troops stopped one of the convoys bound for nearby Beit Lahiya and ordered the supplies to be offloaded, said Alia Zaki.
The announcement comes days a ahead of a US deadline demanding that Israel improve aid deliveries across Gaza. Experts have said there is a strong likelihood that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza.
Israel’s new offensive has focusing on Jabaliya, a densely populated refugee camp where Israel says Hamas had regrouped. Other areas affected by the new campaign include Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, situated just north of Gaza City.
The UN estimates that tens of thousands of people remain in the area. Earlier this week, the Gaza health ministry said there were no ambulances or emergency crews operating north of Gaza City.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, the Israeli army has struck several schools and tent camps, packed with tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders.
The conflict has left 90 per cent of Palestinians in Gaza displaced, according to UN figures.
The military has accused Hamas of operating from within civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals.
More than a year of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, Israeli air strikes over the last day have killed more than 20 people including several children, Lebanese authorities said on Saturday, after heavy Israeli bombardment pounded the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut overnight.
At least seven people were killed in the coastal city of Tyre late on Friday, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The Israeli military has previously ordered swathes of the city to evacuate but there were no orders published by the Israeli military spokesperson on social media platform X ahead of Friday’s strikes.
The ministry said two children were among the dead. Rescue operations were ongoing and other body parts retrieved in the aftermath of the attack would undergo DNA testing to identify them, the ministry added.
At least 16 more people were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday across the eastern plains around the historic city of Baalbek, the area’s governor said in a post on social media platform X.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,136 people and wounded 13,979 in Lebanon over the last year. The toll includes 619 women and 194 children.
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Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hizbullah since October 2023, but fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year. Israel has intensified and expanded its bombing campaign, and Hizbullah has ramped up daily rocket and drone attacks against Israel.
More than a dozen Israeli strikes also hit the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight, once a bustling collection of neighbourhoods and a key stronghold of Hizbullah. – AP/Reuters