Beijing, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thani said on May 14 that the Gaza ceasefire talks have reached an impasse due to Israel's military operation against the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
Qatar is one of the mediators in the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Speaking at an economic forum in Doha, the capital of Qatar, Mohammed said that the ceasefire talks in Gaza had shown some positive momentum in recent weeks, but that "things are not going in the right direction" and that "now we are almost at a stalemate, and what happened in Rafah has set us back".
Israeli ground forces launched an operation against the Rafah crossing on the night of the 6th against the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and entered and controlled the Rafah crossing on the morning of the 7th. The Rafah crossing, adjacent to Egypt, is the main gateway for international humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Since the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in October last year, a large number of Palestinians in the central and northern Gaza Strip have sought refuge in Rafah, and now the number of people in Rafah City has exceeded 1.4 million, more than half of the population of the Gaza Strip.
According to Reuters, the Israeli army continued to intensify its offensive against Rafah on the 14th, penetrating further into the eastern part of Rafah and reaching some residential areas.
Mohammed said Qatar would continue to mediate, but that Israel and Hamas had fundamental differences in their goals. "The [Hamas] side wants to end the war first and then talk about the detainees; The other side (Israel) wants to continue the war while getting the detainees. ”
According to the health department of the Gaza Strip, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 35,000 Palestinians and injured more than 78,000 since the start of the current round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to Israel, about 1,200 people have been killed in Hamas raids on Israeli military and civilian targets, and about 100 people are still being held by Hamas. (Zheng Haoning)