Main Negotiator Qatar frustrated for rough conversations about Gaza file

The conversations between Israel and Hamas about a ceasefire in Gaza are very stiff. That says Abdullah Bin Mohammed al-Khulaifi, who guides the conversations as the main negotiator of Qatar, in a Friday interview with the AFP news agency published on Sunday.

« We are absolutely frustrated at times by how slowly the negotiation process is going, » said Khulaifi, who said he would continue with the conversations. « We have constantly made up for the parties in recent days to get the parties together. And we will continue to do that, despite the difficulties. »

The first phase of the previous cease-fire ended on March 18, after which Israel intensified his attacks in Gaza. Since then, more than 1,800 people have been killed in Gaza, including certainly six hundred children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Miles apart

In the conversations about a new file, the warring parties are miles apart. Israel wants to stop fighting fighting if Hamas will definitively put down the weapons through Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. That was also the scope of the proposal that Israel sent to Hamas on Tuesday, and that Hamas was promptly rejected.

Disarm control is not an option for Hamas: the battle group wants to go back to the agreements of the previous file instead, which stated that Israel would completely withdraw from Gaza. In exchange, Hamas would then release all remaining hostages. Hamas currently still has 59 Israeli hostages; Israel believes that there are 24 still alive.

The Qatarese delegation has received criticism from Israel during the entire negotiation process, told top negotiator Khulaifi to AFP news agency. For example, the bribes would have paid to employees of Netanyahu and have supported ‘anti-Zionism’ at American universities. Qatar denies the accusations. Opposite AFP, Khulaifi took them off as ‘noise’.