Qatar will stop trying to mediate a truce in Gaza until Hamas and Israel demonstrate a sincere willingness to return to the negotiating table, an official briefed on the matter told Reuters yesterday.

The Gulf country has also concluded that Hamas’ political office in Doha no longer serves its purpose, the official said. The move marks the biggest setback to efforts to reach a truce since Hamas’ attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war on October 7, 2023.

Along with the United States and Egypt, Qatar had mediated between the two warring sides after a single truce in the conflict in November 2023 that lasted a week and allowed the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for prisoners from Israel Palestinians.

Since then, many negotiation talks have taken place without any results. The gas-rich emirate of Qatar, an ally of the United States, has housed Hamas’ political office for more than a decade, and it is also in Qatar that former Palestinian leader Israel Haniyeh was killed on July 31 in an attack attributed to Israel.

Hamas’ office in Qatar was opened in 2012 in coordination with the US government, following its request to have a channel of communication with the movement, a Qatari official explained at the start of the war. This office was used for coordinated mediations with several US governments to stabilize the situation in Gaza and Israel, he added.

With information from: AMNA

Also read: Israel – Hamas | Egypt’s ceasefire plan