Qatar suspends mediation efforts on Gaza, officials say | Israel-Palestine conflict News

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The move comes amid growing frustration with lack of progress on a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Qatar has decided to suspend its key mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, officials said on Saturday.

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 with Egypt, the other key mediator.

A diplomatic source briefed on the matter said Israel and Hamas, along with the United States, were informed after the decision was made. The source added that “as a consequence, the Hamas political office no longer serves its purpose” in Qatar.

A senior Hamas official said they were aware of Qatar’s decision to suspend mediation efforts, “but no one told us to leave”.

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

“After rejecting repeated proposals to release hostages, [Hamas] leaders should no longer be welcome in the capitals of any American partner. We made that clear to Qatar following Hamas’ rejection weeks ago of another hostage release proposal,” a US senior administration official said.

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

Qatar’s announcement comes after growing frustration with the lack of progress on a ceasefire deal.

There continued to be no end in sight to Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, where Israel’s military said it struck command centres and other militant infrastructure overnight in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

In Gaza, three separate Israeli strikes killed at least 16 people, including women and children, on Saturday, Palestinian medical officials said, while Israel announced the first delivery of humanitarian aid in weeks to the territory’s hungry, devastated north.

One of the strikes hit a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City’s eastern Tufah neighbourhood, killing at least six people, the territory’s Health Ministry said.

Two local journalists, a pregnant woman and a child were among the dead, it said.

Israel’s army said the strike targeted a militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, offering no evidence or details.

Seven people were also killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent in the southern city of Khan Younis where displaced people were sheltering, according to Nasser Hospital. It said the dead included two women and a child.

Palestinian medical officials have 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 wounded, Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah said. It was the eighth Israeli attack on the compound since March.

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

The aid announcement came days before a US deadline demanding that Israel improve aid deliveries across Gaza or risk losing access to US weapons funding.