Minister: Qatar working to revive Gaza ceasefire, despite difficulties

Qatar’s State Minister and chief negotiator, Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, said Doha has been working to revive the Gaza ceasefire-prisoner swap agreement between Hamas and Israel and is committed to doing so despite the difficulties.

“We’ve been working continuously in the last days to try to bring the parties together and revive the agreement that has been endorsed by the two sides,” Al-Khulaifi said Friday in an interview with AFP.

“And we will remain committed to this, in spite of the difficulties,” he added.

Al-Khulaifi has also voiced frustration by the “slowness” of the negotiation process saying “this is an urgent matter. There are lives at stake here if this military operation continues day by day”.

The Qatari official rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allegations of Qatar’s involvement in supporting anti-Israel incitement campaigns on American university campuses, adding that his country has “helped Israel reach a ceasefire, but did so while hosting Hamas leaders”.

Last Thursday, Netanyahu attacked Qatar, publicly accusing it for the first time of being part of the anti-Israel movement on American campuses.

For his part, the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said Israel “did not abide by” the ceasefire agreement in Gaza that went into effect in January.

During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Sheikh Tamim said “We reached an agreement several months ago, but unfortunately, Israel did not abide by this agreement… We will seek to bring viewpoints closer together to reach an agreement that ends the Palestinian people suffering”.

The Israeli occupation resumed its aggression and tightened blockade of the Gaza Strip at dawn on March 18, 2025, after a two-month pause under a ceasefire agreement that went into effect on 19 January.

The Israeli occupation genocide in Gaza which started on 7 October 2023, has so far killed and wounded 168,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women, in addition to more than 14,000 missing persons.

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