The assassination of deputy Hamas head Saleh al-Arouri has complicated Qatar’s efforts to arrive at a second deal for the release of hostages in Gaza, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told reporters in Doha on Sunday as he stressed that efforts to reach an agreement were still ongoing.
“Having one of the senior leaders of Hamas being killed is something that can affect such a complicated process, yet we are not giving up,” Thani said during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“We are moving forward. We are continuing our discussion with the parties and are trying to achieve as soon as possible an agreement that can bring a ceasefire, humanitarian relief, and the release of the hostages,” he said.
Aiming to bring everyone home
Blinken said that ‘we are relentlessly focused on bringing everyone home and this was the subject of our conversations this evening as well.”
They spoke as Egyptian and Qatari efforts to secure a deal to free an estimated 136 captives seized in the Hamas-led cross-border rampage on October 7 appeared to have hit an impasse. A November deal saw 105 hostages freed, and another five released separately.
Hamas demands a permanent ceasefire in exchange for freeing the hostages, while Israel has insisted that it must complete its military campaign to destroy Hamas and will only agree to a temporary pause.
In an unusual move, a group of representatives of six of the hostage families traveled to Qatar to meet with top officials including Thani.
At a press event in Tel Aviv on Sunday night Daniel Lifshitz, whose 83-year-old grandfather Oded is among those held in Gaza, said they had gone to Qatar for fear the impasse could kill the captives.
They had traveled in cooperation with Israeli authorities and in response to an invitation from Qatar, he said. It is a move that would otherwise have been complicated given that Qatar and Israel do not have diplomatic relations.“We worked hard to arrange this meeting because we wanted them to hear us,” he said.
The Qatari prime minister and foreign minister spoke with the family members who walked away with the understanding that a “full ceasefire would speed up their release,” Lifshitz said.
In Doha, the Qatari Prime Minister spoke of how critical it was to end the war, which Hamas said has caused over 22,000 Palestinian deaths. Israel has asserted that over 8,000 of those fatalities are combatants.
It was a message that Blinken heard earlier in the day as well from Jordanian King Abdullah, when the two met in Amman.
Both Thani and Abdullah spoke of the war as a “catastrophe” and of their concern of forced Palestinian displacement from Gaza.
A ceasefire would also help de-escalate regional violence, Thani said, adding that there is no peace in the region without the creation of a Palestinian state.
Blinken in his statements in Doha, said that the US was committed to ensuring that the conflict did not expand to new fronts.
Ahead of his visit to Israel later this week, Blinken said it was imperative for the IDF to do more protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“Far too many innocent Palestinians have already been killed,” he said.
Over 90% of the population in Gaza is facing food insecurity, Blinken said, as he called for an immediate increase in aid and a deconfliction mechanism to ensure its safe delivery.
It was important, he said, to remember that the war was sparked by the horrific Hamas attack against Israel’s southern border on October 7 in which over 1,200 Israelis were murdered.
Still when quizzed about whether the US would link military aid to Israel with its adherence to international law, Blinken said, adherence to humanitarian law was important to the Biden administration.
“Any military assistance we provide comes with requirements including that the weapons be used in accordance with the laws of war and international humanitarian requirements.
“We want to make sure that any weapons we provide are used accordingly. That is something that we take very seriously, and we will continue to do so.”
Blinken also addressed the concern by Arab leaders about the displacement of Gazan Palestinians.Those “civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow. They cannot, they must not be pressed to leave Gaza,” said Blinken.
The Secretary of State took issue with statements by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party) and National Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit), which called for the voluntarily relocation of Palestinians from Gaza once Israel had successfully ousted Hamas from Gaza.
“We reject the statements by some Israeli ministers and lawmakers calling for a resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza. These statements are irresponsible, inflammatory and they only make it harder to secure a future for a Palestinian led Gaza with Hamas no longer in control and with terror groups no longer able to threaten Israeli security,” he said.
It’s important to work both on an issue on the ground now and the scenario that would bring security and peace in the region, he said.
“Our partners are willing to have these difficult conversations and to make hard decisions… All of us recognize that we have to work together,” he added.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, President Isaac Herzog said that Israel was opposed to the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.
This is not the position of the Israeli government – the parliament of the public, Herzog said.“But we are a democracy, and in democracy, you have a variety of ideas… In a society where free speech is the basis of our national DNA, people can say whatever they want. So, in a – in a Cabinet of 30 ministers where it’s not the security Cabinet, a minister can say whatever he wants.
“I may not like it, but this is Israeli politics. And, by the way, you have in America people who say things which you don’t like. But that doesn’t mean it’s the policy of the administration,” he said.
He noted that “so, same goes here. They’re speaking about the willful leaving of the Gaza Strip. But clearly I’m saying outright, officially and unequivocally, this is not the Israeli position. We should remember, however, the national psyche here. We are in deep trauma. In the last three months, we have seen so much agony, pain, and sadness.