Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Doha to discuss securing a ceasefire in Gaza with the emir of Qatar, whose country has been at the center of mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Abbas would meet Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Monday, but did not say whether he would also meet leaders of Hamas, a group that has long been at odds with Abbas and his Fatah, based in the West Bank. cluster.
The Palestinian ambassador to Qatar, Munir Ghannam, told Voice of Palestine radio on Sunday that Abbas and the emir would discuss efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza with Israel and ways to increase aid for the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip. territory.
“Qatar plays an important role in international efforts and mediation to reach a ceasefire. Therefore, coordination with Qatar, also with Egypt, is of special importance to end this aggression against our people,” Ghannam said.
Qatar hosts Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh, as well as another senior leader of the group, Khaled Meshaal, who handles diaspora affairs in Hamas's political office.
The visit comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows to advance plans for a ground offensive in Rafah, despite growing international alarm over the potential consequences for the 1.4 million Palestinian civilians crammed into the city. southern Gaza.
The United States, Israel's main international ally, warned that an attack on Rafah could be a “disaster” and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that Palestinian civilians in the city had “nowhere to go.”
Egypt warned of the “dire consequences” of a possible Israeli military attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, near its border.
“Egypt called for the need to unite all international and regional efforts to prevent the attack on the Palestinian city of Rafah,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Mohammed Nazzal, a senior Hamas figure, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu “wants the war to continue to stay in power and does not want to lose his right-wing coalition.”
“He wants to continue the fight until the US elections in November for [Donald] Trump will win,” Nazzal said.
Israel began its assault on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas fighters carried out a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing at least 1,139 people and taking about 240 more hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Following the attack, Israel launched a devastating bombing and ground invasion that has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed more than 28,100 people, according to Palestinian authorities.
Talks for an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages have so far failed to reach an agreement. Last week, Israel rejected a Hamas proposal, saying it would not stop fighting as long as the group held brigades that Israel says are hiding in Rafah.
Last Thursday, a Hamas delegation was in Cairo and left the next day after holding talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials for ceasefire talks.
While Gaza has been ruled by Hamas since 2007, areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank are governed by the Palestinian Authority, headed by Fatah.
Abbas's authority has largely been reduced to the West Bank, which is larger than Gaza but also fractured by Israeli settlements.
Previous attempts, mainly led by Egypt, to resolve disputes between Hamas and Fatah have so far failed to end the divisions, which analysts say weakens Palestinian efforts to secure a state of their own on lands now occupied by Israel.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials blame the Palestinian Authority for failing to rein in factions such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, which have called on Israel to lift the blockade of the enclave and end its occupation of Palestinian territories.
Successive Israeli governments have expanded settler expansion into the occupied Palestinian territories in violation of international law.
