Qatar suspends role as mediator in Gaza talks

DOHA — Qatar has suspended its role as a key mediator for a Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal until Hamas and Israel show "seriousness" in talks, its Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

The Gulf country has been involved in months of protracted diplomacy aimed at ending the Palestine-Israel conflict, triggered by Hamas' Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,206 deaths, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed 43,603 people in Gaza, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.

However, the talks, also mediated by Cairo and Washington, have repeatedly hit problems since a one-week truce in November last year — the only one so far. Each side has blamed the other 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," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said.

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

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

The territory's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes had killed at least 14 Palestinians overnight, including nine at a tent camp in the southern area of Khan Younis.

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.

On Sunday, the civil defense agency said that 30 people, including 13 children, were killed in Israeli strikes on two houses in the north.

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 Hezbollah.

Lebanon's Health Ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 20 people, including three children, in the village of Almat, north of Beirut.

Meanwhile, the United States and Britain launched raids on the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital Sanaa on Saturday night, Houthirun Al-Masirah TV reported.

The airstrikes targeted military sites in the al-Nahdayn and al-Hafa areas in southern and southeastern Sanaa, according to the TV channel, which provided no further details.

Houthi militants have launched attacks on "Israeli-linked" ships in the Red Sea since November last year, in solidarity with the Palestinians in Israel's conflict with Hamas.

The attacks have drawn US and British retaliatory strikes that aim to deter the group from disrupting the international shipping lanes.

Agencies - Xinhua