Palestinians fleeing the north walk along the Salaheddine road in the Zeitoun district on the southern outskirts of Gaza City yesterday.
Doha, Qatar: Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Dr. Majid bin Mohammed Al Ansari has said that Qatar’s efforts are aimed at establishing a sustainable truce that will ultimately lead to the end of war.
In a weekly media briefing yesterday, Al Ansari highlighted the terms and conditions of the two-day extension of the humanitarian pause in Gaza.
He said: “Regarding what we will be working on in the next 48 hours, our main focus right now and our hope is to reach a sustainable truce that will lead to further negotiations for the end of this war.”
He urged the international community to help to make it happen. “We are working to extend the ceasefire as long as Hamas is able to guarantee the release of 10 hostages daily.”
He said that Qatar has been working, from day one of the crisis, to strengthen the Qatari mediation role with regard to reaching a truce and then a permanent ceasefire.
To a question about aid to Gaza including field hospitals, Al Ansari said, “The leadership’s directive is to provide everything necessary, and this is without a doubt what experience has proven regarding Qatar’s position on this crisis, as is the case with the successive crises of our brothers in Palestine.”
“What we want to build on here is that the success in achieving this truce, the state of calm in Gaza and the entry of aid into Gaza, increases the pressure of the international community towards reaching a permanent ceasefire agreement in Gaza, or at least a long truce to reach general negotiations to reach to the rest of the hostages.”
He said that the total number of aircraft so far reached 27 aircraft in this air bridge to the city of Al Arish to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, and the total Qatari aid so far reached 910 tonnes.
He said that the visit of Minister of State for International Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs H E Lolwah bint Rashid Al Khater to the Gaza Strip is the first by a senior Arab official since the beginning of this crisis, and aims, in addition to supporting the brotherly Palestinian people, to supervise the process of bringing this aid into the Gaza Strip. To another question regarding breaches of the agreement, he said that none of the breaches sabotaged the deal. “There were some minimum breaches, but they did not harm the essence of the agreement.”.
He said Qatar is exerting continuous and diligent efforts within the framework of its mediation to reach an extension of the humanitarian pause in the Gaza Strip between Hamas and Israel over the next 48 hours.
Regarding the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Dr. Majed bin Mohammed Al Ansari stated that it is an integral part of the pause agreement, emphasizing the necessity of sustaining aid entry due to the severity of the destruction, losses, and significant damage.
Concerning Israeli military hostages, the spokesperson confirmed that the agreement prioritizes children, women, and then civilians, pointing out that the issue of military detainees will be discussed at a later time. Click here for LIVE UPDATES on Gaza
