Ceasefire talks break down amid claims Hamas has been kicked out of Qatar

Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip: Qatar has suspended its key mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, it says, after growing frustration with lack of progress on a ceasefire deal for Gaza.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the remaining Hamas leadership hosted by Qatar must leave or where it would go. Hamas has good relations with Iran and Turkey, and some of its leaders are now in Lebanon.

A neighbourhood in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza Strip, destroyed this year.Credit: AP

However, Qatar is highly likely to return to mediation efforts if both sides show “serious political willingness” to reach a deal, according to an official with Egypt, the other key mediator.

Qatar told Israel and Hamas it couldn’t continue to mediate “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith” and “as a consequence, the Hamas political office no longer serves its purpose” in Qatar, a diplomatic source briefed on the matter said. Qatar told Hamas it would have to leave if it wasn’t ready to engage in serious negotiations, the source said.

In Washington, a US official said the Biden administration told Qatar two weeks ago that the Hamas office’s continued operation in Doha was no longer useful and that the Hamas delegation should be expelled.

A senior US official said that after Hamas rejected the last proposal for a ceasefire, Qatar accepted the advice and informed the Hamas delegation of the decision 10 days ago.

A senior Hamas official said it was aware of Qatar’s decision to suspend mediation efforts, “but no one told us to leave”. Hamas has repeatedly called for an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as a condition for any ceasefire deal. Israel seeks the return of all hostages taken in Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and insists on a presence in Gaza.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The Israeli prime minister’s office had no comment.

The state-run Qatar News Agency published comments attributed to Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari, a foreign ministry spokesman, confirming that Doha informed parties in the talks 10 days ago that it “would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round”.

“Qatar will resume those efforts with its partners when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians,” the report said.

Residents check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon.Credit: AP

There continued to be no end in sight to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, where Israel’s military said it had struck command centres and other militant infrastructure in Beirut’s southern suburbs and elsewhere. An Israeli airstrike on the southern port city of Tyre late on Friday killed at least seven, officials and a resident said.

Hezbollah “should continue (the fight) and we will continue to back them up even if we lose our families, our homes, and end up in the dirt”, said one Beirut resident, Mohammed Mekdad, as people searched the smoking rubble.

In Gaza, the latest Israeli strikes killed at least 16 people, Palestinian medical officials said, while Israel announced the first delivery of humanitarian aid in weeks to the territory’s hungry, devastated north.

One strike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City’s eastern Tufah neighbourhood, killing at least six people, the territory’s health ministry said. Two journalists, a pregnant woman and a child were among the dead, it said. Israel’s army said the strike had targeted a militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, offering no evidence.

Another Israeli strike killed seven people, including two women and a child in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comment.

An Israeli strike hit tents in the courtyard of central Gaza’s main hospital, killing at least three people and wounding a journalist, Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah said. It was the eighth Israeli attack on the compound since March.

Israel says aid trucks reach northern Gaza

The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza said 11 aid trucks containing food, water and medical equipment had reached the enclave’s far north. It’s the first time any aid has reached there since Israel began a new military campaign last month.

Palestinians gather to receive aid distributed by UNRWA, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, in Nusairat refugee camp, Gaza. Credit: AP

But not all the aid reached the agreed drop-off points, according to the UN World Food Program. In the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya, Israeli troops stopped one convoy bound for nearby Beit Lahiya and ordered the supplies to be offloaded, program spokesperson Alia Zaki said.

The aid announcement came days before a US deadline demanding Israel improve aid deliveries across Gaza or risk losing access to US weapons funding. The US says Israel must allow a minimum of 350 trucks a day carrying food and other supplies.

AP

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