Mediation efforts to secure a new Gaza ceasefire and release more hostages held by Hamas are continuing despite continued Israeli bombardment which is “narrowing the window” for a successful outcome, Qatar’s prime minister said.
“Our efforts as the state of Qatar along with our partners are continuing. We are not going to give up,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum.
He adding that “the continuation of the bombardment is just narrowing this window for us.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he regrets the Security Council’s failure to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, condemning the divisions that have “paralysed” the world body.
Addressing Qatar’s Doha Forum, Guterres said the council was “paralysed by geostrategic divisions” that were undermining solutions to Israel’s war on Gaza which started on October 7. The body’s “authority and credibility were severely undermined” by its delayed response to the conflict, he said two days after a US veto prevented a resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire.
“I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared,” he told the forum. “Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it. I can promise, I will not give up.”
Heavy fighting raged overnight and into Sunday in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, as Israel pressed ahead with its offensive after the US blocked the latest international efforts to halt the fighting and rushed more munitions to its close ally.
Israel has faced rising international outrage and calls for a ceasefire after the killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of nearly 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people within the besieged territory, where UN agencies say there is no safe place to flee.
But the United States has lent vital support to the offensive once again in recent days, by vetoing United Nations Security Council efforts to end the fighting that enjoyed wide international support, and by pushing through an emergency sale of over $100 million worth of tank ammunition to Israel.
