Qatar to suspend mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, officials say
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — Qatar has suspended its key mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, it said Saturday, after growing frustration with the lack of progress on a cease-fire deal for the Gaza Strip.
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.
However, 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 official from Egypt, the other key mediator.
Qatar told Israel and Hamas it can’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 will have to leave if it isn’t ready to engage in serious negotiations, the source said.
In Washington, a U.S. official said the Biden administration informed Qatar two weeks ago that the Hamas office’s continued operation in Doha was no longer useful and the Hamas delegation should be expelled.
As Israeli airstrikes flatten swaths of Lebanon, groups warn the attacks mirror some of the patterns of destruction and displacement seen in Gaza.
A senior U.S. official said that after Hamas rejected the last proposal for a cease-fire, Qatar accepted the advice and informed the Hamas delegation of the decision 10 days ago.
A senior Hamas official said they were 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 cease-fire deal. Israel seeks the return of all hostages taken in Hamas’ Oct. 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.
Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and Gaza
There continued to be no end in sight to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza or the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, where Israel’s military said that it struck command centers and other militant infrastructure in Beirut‘s southern suburbs. An Israeli airstrike on the southern port city of Tyre late Friday killed at least seven people, officials and a resident said.
Palestinians in north Gaza are rationing out their last supplies of food to survive, with no aid entering the area for a month under Israel’s siege.
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,” Beirut resident Mohammed Mekdad said as people searched the smoking rubble.
In Gaza, Israeli strikes on Saturday killed at least 16 people, including women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.
One strike hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City’s eastern Tufah neighborhood, killing at least six people, the territory’s Health Ministry said. A pregnant woman, a child and two journalists were among the dead, the ministry said. The Israeli army said the strike targeted a militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, offering no evidence.
Another Israeli strike killed seven, including two women and a child, when it hit a tent in the southern city of Khan Yunis where displaced people were sheltering, according to Nasser Hospital. The Israeli army didn’t respond to a request for comment about the blast.
And an Israeli strike hit tents in the courtyard of central Gaza’s main hospital, killing at least three people and wounding a local journalist, Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah said. It was the eighth Israeli attack on the compound since March.
The Biden administration is stepping up criticism of Israel for not doing more to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
The Israeli army has struck several schools and tent camps packed with Palestinians. The conflict has left 90% of Palestinians in Gaza displaced, according to U.N. figures. Israel accuses Hamas of operating from within civilian infrastructure.
The war began after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s bombardment and ground attacks in Gaza have killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian Health Ministry officials say. They don’t distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.
Shurafa and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Shurafa reported from Deir al Balah, Magdy from Cairo. AP journalist Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
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