Qatar has withdrawn its mediation between Israel and Palestinian Hamas after months of unsuccessful efforts to end the devastating war in the Gaza Strip, a diplomatic source said on Saturday.
He also indicated that the political office of the Islamist movement in Doha “no longer has any reason to exist”, added the same source, without explicitly saying whether the office would be closed.
With the United States and Egypt, Qatar had mediated between the two belligerents since a single truce in the conflict in November 2023 which lasted a week and allowed the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for prisoners. Palestinians detained by Israel.
Hamas and Israel accuse each other of blocking any agreement, each camp refusing the other’s conditions for a ceasefire in the war triggered on October 7, 2023 by an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel.
“The Qataris have informed the American administration that they would be ready to engage again in mediation when both parties (…) demonstrate a sincere desire to return to the negotiating table,” indicated the diplomatic source on condition of anonymity.
They also “informed the Israelis and Hamas that as long as both sides refuse to negotiate an agreement in good faith, they cannot continue to play the role of mediator. As a result, the Hamas political office (in Doha) “no longer has its reason for being,” she continued.
A Hamas official said his movement had received “no request to leave Qatar.” “We have nothing to confirm or deny what was published by an unidentified diplomatic source,” said this Hamas official from Doha when contacted by telephone by AFP.
Two Israeli strikes
Meanwhile, the war continues in the Palestinian territory, where Civil Defense announced the death of 14 people, killed in two Israeli strikes on Saturday.
According to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Bassal, a strike on the Fahad al-Sabah school in Gaza City (north), where displaced people are sheltering, left “five dead, including children”. Another Israeli strike “on displaced people’s tents in Khan Younes” (south) left “nine dead”.
The war spread to Lebanon, after Lebanese Hezbollah opened a front against Israel the day after October 7, 2023, in support of Hamas.
Since September 23, the Israeli army has been carrying out a campaign of intense, deadly strikes in Lebanon, and since September 30 a ground offensive in the south of the country, bordering northern Israel.
Israel says it wants to neutralize Hezbollah to allow the return home of 60,000 inhabitants of the north of its territory displaced by incessant rocket fire since the start of the war in Gaza.
Strikes in Lebanon
On Saturday, the Ministry of Health announced in a new report that seven people, including two girls, had been killed the day before in airstrikes on Tire (south), after bodies were removed from the rubble.
Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for several attacks against northern Israel. And the Israeli army announced that it had struck “more than 50 terrorist targets in Lebanon and Gaza” in the last 24 hours.
In this explosive context, Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah against Israel, its enemy, has warned of the risk of the war spilling over.
“The world must know that if the war spreads, its harmful effects will not be limited only to the Middle East,” warned Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
