Mediation efforts for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas in the Gaza Strip will continue despite incessant Israeli bombings that are “limiting possibilities,” Qatar's prime minister said on Sunday.
“Our efforts carried out by the State of Qatar together with our partners continue. We will not give up,” assured Mohammed ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani at the Doha Forum.
The war was triggered by an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip on October 7th. According to Israeli authorities, 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and about 240 people were kidnapped in this attack. Israeli retaliatory bombings in the Gaza Strip have claimed more than 17,700 lives, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
Qatar played a key role in negotiations that led to a seven-day ceasefire in late November, exchanging dozens of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, until fighting resumed on December 1.
The United States, Israel's main ally in the war, on Friday vetoed a resolution calling for a ceasefire.
“We will continue, we are determined to free the hostages, but we are also determined to end the war,” the Qatari prime minister said.
But he acknowledged: “We do not see the same will on the part of both parties” and “the continuation of the bombings reduces our options.”
“Paralysis” of the'U.N.
At the same event before him, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lamented the United Nations' “paralysis” in the face of war and said he regretted that the Security Council had not voted for a ceasefire.
Mr. Guterres said the Security Council was “paralyzed by geostrategic divisions” and jeopardized its ability to find solutions to the war.
“The authority and credibility of the Security Council have been seriously compromised by its late response to the conflict,” an attack on its reputation made worse by the American veto, he said.
The draft resolution was drafted following the UN Secretary-General's unprecedented invocation of Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which allowed him to draw the Security Council's attention to a matter that “could jeopardize the maintenance of international peace and security.” .
“I repeated my call for a humanitarian ceasefire (…), unfortunately the Security Council did not do so,” Mr. Guterres lamented.
“I can promise I won’t give up,” he added.
“We are at serious risk of the collapse of the humanitarian system,” Mr. Guterres further warned.
“The situation is rapidly becoming a catastrophe with potentially irreversible consequences for the Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region.”
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh also said at the Doha forum that the United States should be “held accountable” for the deaths of civilians in Gaza after its veto.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Aymane Safadi accused Israel of dragging the region “deeper into the ocean of death.”
“Israel just believes it can do it, that it has no accountability,” he said in Doha.