Gaza ceasefire deadlocked as Israel’s Rafah attacks set talks ‘backward’
Al Jazeera
Qatar says mediation efforts are being hampered by Israel’s offensive on Gaza’s southern city.
Israel’s military operation in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah has set ceasefire negotiations with Hamas “backward”, mediator Qatar has said, adding that the talks have lost steam.
“Especially in the past few weeks, we have seen some momentum building but unfortunately things didn’t move in the right direction and right now we are on a status of almost a stalemate,” Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday.
“Of course, what happened with Rafah has set us backward.”
Qatar has been engaged in months of mediation between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, along with Egypt and the United States.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli forces pushed deeper into eastern Rafah, entering the neighbourhoods of al-Jnaina, as-Salam and Brazil, as it prepared to expand its military operation.
