Qatari PM hopes ‘momentum’ now to end Israel’s Gaza war; Hamas deliberates

Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani says the Gaza ceasefire plan unveiled by United States President Donald Trump meets the key goals set by mediators – stopping the killing and displacement of Palestinians – and urged all sides to seize the “momentum” to bring Israel’s war to an end.

In an interview with media aired on Wednesday, Sheikh Mohammed said Doha had passed the plan, already backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to Hamas’s negotiating team and discussed its broad terms.

He acknowledged the plan has “practical and implementation challenges,” but said it tackles the most urgent priority: ending the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip while also opening the door to “opportunities”.

“Everyone agreed on stopping the war, preventing displacement and the full withdrawal of the Israeli army. These are the three main, pivotal matters,” he said. “And the direct responsible party for managing Gaza are the Palestinian people themselves.”

“The main focus is how to protect the people in Gaza,” stressed Sheikh Mohammed.

On Monday, Netanyahu apologised to Qatar for the killing of a Qatari citizen during an unprecedented Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha last month, which drew global condemnation.

Sheikh Mohammed received the apology on Monday in a joint call from Trump and Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House.

‘There are challenges’

The 20-point plan has drawn support from a wide range of Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Turkiye and Indonesia. It stipulates that once agreed, the attacks in Gaza will end immediately and “full aid” will be allowed into the Strip.

Representatives from Turkiye are joining a meeting of the Gaza mediation team in Doha amid the diplomatic movement. “Turkiye now stands as part of the US initiative” and is collaborating closely on it, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told a news conference on Tuesday.

The plan states that all Israeli captives would be freed within 72 hours of its acceptance, followed by Israel’s release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas, for its part, would step down from power and demilitarise, with its members granted amnesty.

An international force would be deployed to temporarily oversee security and train local Palestinian police forces, while a technocratic committee of Palestinians would assume interim responsibility for governance.

Sheikh Mohammed said the details on some of the points, specifically the process of Israel’s withdrawal and makeup of a future Palestinian administration, will need to be clarified and negotiated.

The plan sets no schedule or clear standards for Israel’s withdrawal, and vaguely gives Israel the right to hold onto a “security perimeter” until the territory “is properly secured”.

Sheikh Mohammed said fleshing out these matters “is primarily the work of the Palestinian side with the Israeli side, but also as a broader supporting international community, there must be a clear and legal framework for this matter, which of course will be at the UN Security Council.”

Hamas, which Doha says has promised to “responsibly examine” the proposal, has yet to give an official reply. Trump on Tuesday said the group had three to four days to answer, and warned that if it didn’t sign on, they would “pay in hell”.

“This plan is not an offer, as Trump made quite clear. It’s an ultimatum,” said media’s Mike Hanna from Washington, DC.

‘No guarantees’

Some analysts raised concerns that the plan does not provide Palestinians with sufficient security guarantees or a path to autonomous governance.

“If you read the agreement itself, there are no guarantees provided to the Palestinians, not a single guarantee,” said Palestinian lawyer and analyst Diana Buttu. “All guarantees are provided to the Israelis.”

“There is every indication that if, at any point, Israel decides that it wants to go back to the war, it will do so,” said Phyllis Bennis, a programme director at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC.

The renewed ceasefire push comes as Israel presses a devastating offensive into what it claims is one of Hamas’s last strongholds in Gaza City, nearly two years into the war.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s attacks in the enclave have killed 66,097 Palestinians and injured 168,536, while its aid restrictions have contributed to widespread malnutrition, causing 453 hunger-related deaths, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.