The nearly two-month-old ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will not be complete until Israeli troops withdraw from the Palestinian territory under a peace plan backed by Washington and the UN, mediator Qatar’s prime minister said Saturday.
“Now we are at the critical moment … A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of the Israeli forces, (and) there is stability back in Gaza,” Qatari premier Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum, an annual diplomatic conference in the Gulf state’s capital.
Qatar, alongside the United States and Egypt, helped secure the long-elusive truce in Gaza, which came into effect on Oct. 10 and has mostly halted two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Under a second phase of the deal, which has yet to begin, Israel is to withdraw from its positions in the territory, an interim authority is to take over governance, and an international stabilization force (ISF) is to be deployed.
Arab and Muslim nations have been hesitant to participate in the new stabilization force, which could end up fighting Palestinian militants.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, also speaking at the forum, said talks on the force were ongoing and that critical questions remained about its command structure and which countries would contribute.
But its first goal, Fidan said, “should be to separate Palestinians from the Israelis.”
“This should be our main objective. Then we can address the other remaining issues,” he added.
Hamas is also supposed to disarm under the 20-point plan first outlined by US President Donald Trump, with members who decommission their weapons allowed to leave Gaza. The militant group has repeatedly rejected the proposition.
Turkey has indicated it wants to take part in the stabilization force, but its efforts are viewed unfavorably in Israel, which considers Ankara too close to Hamas.
“I think the only viable way to finish this war is to engage faithfully and forcefully in peace talks,” Fidan said.
Sheikh Mohammed said Qatar and fellow truce guarantors Turkiye, Egypt, and the US were “getting together in order to force the way forward for the next phase” of the deal.
“And this next phase is just also temporary from our perspective,” he said.
“If we are … just resolving what happened in the last two years, it’s not enough,” he continued, calling for a “lasting solution that provides justice for both people.”
Deployment of stabilization force in Gaza ‘as soon as possible’
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Saturday urged the rapid deployment of an international ceasefire monitoring force under the second phase of a peace deal for the Gaza Strip.
“As for the International Stabilization Force, we need to deploy this force as soon as possible on the ground because one party, which is Israel, is every day violating the ceasefire … so we need monitors,” the minister said.
He warned that Egypt’s Rafah crossing into Gaza “is not going to be a gateway for displacement. It’s only for flooding Gaza with humanitarian and medical care.”
