Gaza mediator Qatar bows out, source says, in sign of impasse

On November 10, 2024By Pranco

Dubai (AFP) – Qatar has withdrawn as a key mediator for an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza after concluding that Hamas and Israel were unwilling to negotiate “in good faith”, a diplomatic source said on Saturday to AFP.

The Gulf emirate, which has housed Hamas’s political leadership since 2012 with the blessing of the United States, has been engaged in months of protracted diplomacy aimed at ending the war sparked by the Palestinian group’s attack on Israel last year on October 7.

But the talks, also mediated by Cairo and Washington, have repeatedly encountered problems since a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023 – the only one so far – with both sides trading blame for the standoff.

“The Qataris have informed both the Israelis and Hamas that as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith, they cannot continue to mediate,” the diplomatic source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The source added that Doha had already informed “both parties, Israel and Hamas, as well as the US government” of its decision.

Qatar and the United States, along with Egypt, have been involved in months of mediation efforts aimed at stopping the Gaza war © KARIM JAAFAR / AFP

“The Qataris have indicated to the US government that they would be willing to re-engage in mediation if both sides… demonstrate a genuine willingness to return to the negotiating table,” the source said.

There was no official confirmation from Qatar or any comment from Egypt and the United States.

With ceasefire talks in Gaza at an impasse, Hamas’s political office in Doha “no longer serves its purpose,” the source said, without specifying whether Qatar plans to ask the Palestinian group’s leaders to leave the country.

During talks over the past year, both Qatari and U.S. officials indicated that Hamas would remain in Doha as long as its presence provided a viable communications channel.

A senior Hamas official in Doha told AFP that “we have not received any request to leave Qatar.”

– ‘Insufficient willingness’ –

Despite the ceasefire last November, when dozens of hostages held by Hamas were released, successive rounds of negotiations have failed to end the war.

A man takes a photo of a building hit by an Israeli attack, during a media tour organized by Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut © – / AFP

To break the impasse towards the end of US President Joe Biden’s term and ahead of this week’s US elections, Washington and Doha announced new face-to-face talks last month to explore new options.

A Hamas official said earlier in November that the group had received a proposal from Egypt and Qatar for a short-term ceasefire but had rejected it.

The diplomatic source said on Saturday that Qatar has “concluded that there is insufficient willingness on both sides” to bridge gaps in the negotiations.

A crucial hurdle has been Hamas’s insistence on Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza, which Israeli officials have repeatedly rejected.

The talks are “more about politics and elections than about a serious attempt to secure peace,” the source said.

Palestinians at a hospital in Gaza City after victims were transported there following an Israeli attack © Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP

On the ground in the besieged Gaza Strip, fighting showed no signs of abating on Saturday.

The area’s civil protection agency said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 14 Palestinians in one night.

Civil Defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least nine people, including children and women, were killed in an attack on tents housing displaced Palestinians in the southern part of Khan Yunis, a toll confirmed by the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Another attack killed five people in Gaza City in the north, Bassal said.

The Israeli army said its forces have killed “dozens of terrorists” in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, where it has been conducting a sweeping air and ground operation for more than a month.

Famine in Gaza

A UN-backed report on Saturday said there was a threat of famine in northern Gaza due to a “rapidly deteriorating situation” with increased hostilities and a near-complete halt in food aid.

“Famine thresholds may have already been exceeded, but they will be in the near future,” the Famine Review Committee warned.

The Israeli military questioned the credibility of the report and condemned “partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests.”

Rescue workers at the scene of Israeli attacks on the southern Lebanese city of Tyre © Kawnat HAJU / AFP

The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed 43,552 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

Of the 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in the October 7 attack, 97 remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

The conflict has spread to Lebanon, where Israel stepped up its air campaign in September and later sent ground troops after a year of cross-border clashes with Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Hezbollah said it attacked targets in northern Israel and also downed an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon.

According to ministry figures, they are among the more than 2,700 people who have died in Lebanon since September 23.

Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas, warned that the war could spread beyond the Middle East.

“The world must know that if the war spreads, insecurity and instability could spread to other regions, even far away,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a speech on state television.