Sawt Falasteen - Qatar suspends Gaza mediation, in sign of impasse

The Gulf emirate, which has hosted Hamas's political leadership since 2012 with US blessing, has been involved in months of protracted diplomacy aimed at ending the war triggered by the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on Israel last year.

But the talks, also mediated by Cairo and Washington, have repeatedly hit snags since a one-week truce in November 2023 -- the only one so far -- with both sides trading blame for the impasse.

"Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago, during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round," Doha's foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said in a statement.

"Qatar would resume those efforts... when the parties show their willingness and seriousness," he added.

A diplomatic source earlier told AFP that "the Qataris informed both the Israelis and Hamas that as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith, they cannot continue to mediate".

With Gaza truce talks at a deadlock, the Hamas political office in Doha "no longer serves its purpose", said the diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Both Qatari and US officials have indicated that Hamas would remain in Doha as long as its presence offered a viable channel of communication.

A senior Hamas official in Doha told AFP that "we have not received any request to leave Qatar".

- 400 days of war -

Despite last November's truce, when scores of Hamas-held hostages were released, successive rounds of negotiations have failed to end the war.

The diplomatic source said Saturday that Qatar had "concluded that there is insufficient willingness from either side" to bridge the gaps in negotiations.

A crucial hurdle has been Hamas's insistence that Israel withdraw completely from Gaza, which Israeli officials have repeatedly rejected.

On the ground in the besieged Gaza Strip, the fighting showed no signs of abating on Saturday, the war's 400th day.

The territory's civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes killed at least 14 Palestinians overnight, including nine at a tent camp in the southern area of Khan Yunis.

Afaf Tafesh told AFP she had lost relatives in that strike.

"We have no food, no water, no place to sleep and we are all the time moving from place to place," she said.

Israel's military said its troops killed "dozens of terrorists" in the Jabalia area of northern Gaza, where it has conducted a sweeping air and ground operation for more than a month.

Visiting Jabalia on Friday, Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi told troops that "we are not stopping or slowing down", vowing "to bring back the hostages, to ensure security" for Israeli communities near the Gaza border, a statement from the military said.

A UN-backed assessment issued Saturday said famine is looming in northern Gaza because of a "rapidly deteriorating situation" with increased hostilities and a near-complete halt in food aid.

The Israeli military said the report relied on "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests".

- Lebanon fighting -

The Hamas attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,552 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants during the October 7 attack, 97 remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israelis have protested weekly to pressure their government to do more to secure the captives' release, with crowds again demonstrating Saturday in commercial hub Tel Aviv.

The conflict has expanded to Lebanon, where Israel intensified its air campaign in September and later sent in ground troops after a year of cross-border clashes with Hamas ally Hezbollah.

Lebanon's health ministry reported at least 20 dead in Israeli strikes on the east and 11 killed in the south, including six rescuers affiliated to Hezbollah and its ally Amal.

Hezbollah said Saturday it attacked targets in northern Israel and also downed an Israeli drone over south Lebanon.

More than 2,700 people have been killed in Lebanon since September 23, according to ministry figures.

Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas, warned that the war could spread beyond the Middle East.

"The world should know that in case of the expansion of war... insecurity and instability can spread to other regions, even far away," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in speech aired on state TV.

A.Suleiman--SF-PST