DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Qatar has decided to suspend its key mediation efforts between Hamas and Israel, officials said Saturday, as frustration grew over the lack of progress on a cease-fire agreement. fire for Gaza.

It was not immediately clear whether the remaining Hamas leadership hosted by Qatar must leave.

However, Qatar is highly likely to resume efforts if both sides show “serious political will” to reach a deal, according to an official with Egypt, the other key mediator.

Qatar has told Israel and Hamas that it cannot continue to mediate “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate an agreement in good faith” and “as a result, the political office of Hamas no longer serves its purpose” in Qatar, a diplomatic agent. said the source briefed on the matter. Qatar has told Hamas it will have to leave if it is not ready to engage in serious negotiations, the source said.

In Washington, a US official said the Biden administration informed Qatar two weeks ago that the continued operation of the Hamas office in Doha was no longer useful and that the Hamas delegation should be expelled.

A senior US official said that after Hamas rejected it the latest ceasefire proposalQatar accepted the advice and informed the Hamas delegation of the decision 10 days ago.

A senior Hamas official said they were aware of Qatar’s decision to suspend mediation efforts, “but no one told us to leave.” Hamas has repeatedly called for an end to the war and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza as a condition for any ceasefire agreement. Israel seeks the return of all hostages and insists on a presence in Gaza.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not comment.

It continued with no end in sight Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, where the Israeli military said it struck command centers and other militant infrastructure overnight in the southern suburbs of Beirut. An Israeli airstrike on the southern port city of Tyre On Friday evening, it caused at least seven deaths, officials and a resident said.

Hezbollah “should continue (fighting) and we will continue to support them even if we lose our families, our homes and end up in the ground,” Beirut resident Mohammed Mekdad said as people searched the smoking rubble.

In Gaza, three separate Israeli strikes killed at least 16 people, including women and children, on Saturday, Palestinian medical officials said, as Israel announced the first delivery of humanitarian aid within weeks to the starving and devastated north of the territory.

One of the strikes hit a school-turned-shelter in the Tufah neighborhood of eastern Gaza City, killing at least six people, the territory’s Health Ministry said. Two local journalists, a pregnant woman and a child were among the dead. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a militant belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, without providing evidence or details.

Seven people were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent in the southern town of Khan Younis where displaced people were sheltering, according to Nasser Hospital. Two women and a child were said to be among the dead. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

And Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli strike hit tents in the courtyard of central Gaza’s main hospital, including one that serves as a police post. At least three people were killed and a local journalist was wounded, Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah said. He was the eighth Israeli attack on the compound from March.

Israel says aid trucks are arriving in northern Gaza

The Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian aid to Gaza, COGAT, said on Saturday that 11 aid trucks containing food, water and medical equipment had arrived in the enclave’s far north on Thursday. It is the first time aid has reached the far north since Israel began a new military campaign there last month.

But not all the aid reached the agreed points, according to the UN’s World Food Programme, which was involved in the delivery process. In the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya, Israeli troops stopped a convoy heading to nearby Beit Lahiya and ordered supplies to be unloaded, WFP spokeswoman Alia Zaki said.

Israel’s offensive has focused on Jabaliya, where Israel says Hamas has regrouped. Other affected areas include Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, north of Gaza City.

US deadline looms for Israel

The help announcement came a few days before a US deadline demanding Israel improve aid deliveries to Gaza or risk losing access to US arms funding.

The US says Israel must allow a minimum of 350 trucks a day carrying food and other supplies.

Meanwhile, a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, released on Thursday said there is a high probability that famine is imminent in parts of northern Gaza, the most isolated area of ​​the territory.

COGAT rejected the IPC’s conclusion and said the report was based on “partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests”.

No emergency services operate north of Gaza City

The UN estimates that tens of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza. Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health said there were no ambulances or emergency crews operating north of Gaza City.

The conflict has left 90 percent of Gaza’s Palestinians displaced, according to UN figures. The Israeli army struck several schools and tent camps filled with tens of thousands of Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli offensives and evacuation orders.

The military has accused Hamas of operating from Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including schools, UN facilities and hospitals.

More than a year of war in Gaza has killed more than 43,000 people, Palestinian health officials say. They do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but say more than half of those killed were women and children.

The war started after Palestinian militants stormed into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing an estimated 1,200 people—mostly civilians—and kidnapping another 250.

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