The period is considered “sensitive” according to a Qatari euphemism. Negotiations aimed at stopping hostilities in the Gaza Strip and freeing Israeli hostages are “stall,” the Prime Minister of Qatar, one of the mediators between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, admitted on Wednesday.
“We are going through a sensitive phase with some stagnation and we are trying, as much as possible, to overcome it (…) so as to put an end to the suffering of the population in Gaza and to obtain the release of the hostages” Israeli, declared Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani during a press conference.
Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, are engaged in talks to obtain a truce in the Palestinian territory and the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
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Mediators had bet on a ceasefire before the start of Ramadan, but talks made no progress during the month of Muslim fasting which ended on April 9.
Instead, fears have grown that Gaza's devastating, more than six-month-old war will turn into a regional conflict, following Iran's first-ever direct attack on its archenemy Israel over the weekend. .
“Conflicts on different fronts”
Qatar's prime minister said Doha had "warned from the beginning of this war about widening the circle of conflict, and today we are seeing conflicts on different fronts." “We constantly call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and end this war,” he added, asserting that the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip was facing “siege and famine,” the humanitarian aid being used as “a tool of political blackmail”.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza in southern Israel, which left 1,170 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report established in from official Israeli data. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom have died according to Israeli officials.
In retaliation, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization along with the United States and the European Union, and launched an offensive that has so far killed 33,899 people, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.