Qatar’s chief negotiator, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, has expressed his frustration with the slow pace of the talks for a ceasefire in Gaza, after Israeli strikes in the region resumed last month.
In an interview with news agency AFP, he said, “We’re definitely frustrated by the slowness, sometimes, of the process in the negotiation. This is an urgent matter. There are lives at stake here if this military operation continues day by day.”
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In early March, the first phase of a truce between Israel and Hamas ended with both sides unable to agree on a concrete roadmap for the future.
“We’ve been working continuously in the last days to try to bring the parties together and revive the agreement that has been endorsed by the two sides,” Khulaifi said.
“And we will remain committed to this, in spite of the difficulties,” he added.
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Qatar, which is mediating the negotiations along with the United States and Egypt, has been the target of criticism from Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel launched a criminal probe investigating the role of the Qatari government in allegedly bribing Netanyahu’s aides to promote Doha’s interests in the country.
Qatar has dismissed these claims as a “smear campaign.”
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In March, Israel’s domestic security agency also claimed that the increase in Hamas’ military strength before the October 7 attack was linked to funding from Qatar, which the Gulf state has denied.
“We’ve been receiving those types of criticism and negative comments since the early times of our involvement,” Al-Khulaifi said, as quoted by AFP.
“Critiques without any context, such as the ones that we keep hearing from Netanyahu himself, are often just noise,” he added.
He also rejected Netanyahu’s claims that Qatar had promoted “anti-Americanism” and “anti-Zionism” on US college campuses, saying, “His claims about Qatar’s educational partnerships have been repeatedly disproven. Everything we do is transparent.”
Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, had brokered the first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, which came into force on January 19, after more than a year of war in the region.
Since then, Hamas has insisted that negotiations be held for a second phase to the truce, calling for a permanent ceasefire, as outlined in the agreement in January.
Hamas also rejected the latest Israeli proposal for a 45-day ceasefire, where the militant group would be required to release 10 living hostages. They stated that they would release the remaining hostages only if Israel agreed to a permanent ceasefire.
Israel, on the other hand, has resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip and had earlier halted the entry of aid in the region as well.
Israel’s offensive since October 7, 2023, has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and also displaced around 90 per cent of the population.
