Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, are engaged in talks to obtain a truce in the Palestinian territory. More than 250 people have been kidnapped and 129 remain held in Gaza, 34 of whom have died, according to Israeli officials.
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. The war was triggered by an unprecedented attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrating from Gaza in southern Israel, which left 1,170 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP report established from official Israeli data. The Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip was facing "siege and famine," the humanitarian aid being used as "a tool of political blackmail," according to the Qatari prime minister. "We constantly call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and end this war,' he added.