DOHA: Talks aimed at cementing a truce in Gaza between Israel and Hamas are ongoing, with “technical meetings” taking place between the parties, mediator Qatar’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.
“The technical meetings are still happening between both sides,” ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said, referring to meetings with lower-level officials on the details of an agreement. “There are no principal meetings taking place at the moment.”
Mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have been engaged in months of talks between Israel and Hamas that have failed to end the devastating conflict in Gaza.
Ansari said there were “a lot of issues that are being discussed” in the ongoing meetings, but declined to go into details “to protect the integrity of the negotiations”.
Gaza truce talks resume as violence shows no let-up
Hamas said at the end of last week that indirect negotiations in Doha had resumed, while Israel said it had authorised negotiators to continue the talks in the Qatari capital.
A previous round of mediation in December ended with both sides blaming the other for the impasse, with Hamas accusing Israel of setting “new conditions” and Israel accusing Hamas of throwing up “obstacles” to a deal.
In December, the gas-rich Gulf emirate expressed optimism that “momentum” was returning to the talks following Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States.
A month earlier, Doha had said it was putting its mediation on hold, and that it would resume when Hamas and Israel showed “willingness and seriousness”.
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