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Sunday, February 08, 2026 | Daily Newspaper published by GPPC Doha, Qatar.

Tag Results for "Gaza" (230 articles)

Palestinians walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City, on Thursday. REUTERS
Region

EU eyes helping disarm Hamas under Trump plan

The EU is looking at providing funding and expertise to help disarm Hamas under US President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, a document seen by AFP Friday said. The 27-nation bloc is discussing what role it can play after Europe was left on the sidelines as Trump sealed a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel. The agreement has so far seen the war grind to a halt after two years of constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans and agony for the hostages' families. According to Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza, the next phases of the truce should include the disarmament of Hamas, the offer of amnesty to Hamas leaders who decommission their weapons and establishing the governance of post-war Gaza. EU foreign ministers are set to discuss how the bloc might be involved in the peace process at a meeting on Monday. In a document circulated on Friday, the EU's diplomatic arm said member states should "assess and explore ways to finance and provide expertise for disarmament." An EU diplomat said that any involvement would likely be limited to "technical support" and that Europe would not be involved in any sort of "intervention force". The document said that the EU, the largest international donor to Gaza, should focus on helping ramp up humanitarian aid deliveries to the region. "The priority is to ensure the immediate delivery of aid at scale into and throughout Gaza in line with international humanitarian law," it said. The EU has said it is ready to redeploy a monitoring mission to the Rafah crossing point with Egypt when it opens and could help train a future police force in Gaza. As the biggest international donor to the Palestinians, the EU is also expected to play a role in helping cover the cost of reconstruction. But diplomats say they expect Middle East states to take the lead and the EU doesn't want to rebuild Gaza if Israel could launch fresh offensives in the future. "The EU should have a key role also in the recovery and reconstruction process," the document said, pointing to a "Palestine Donor Group" Brussels is pushing to establish. "The EU should maximise its leverage with a view to gaining more influence on the process through the variety of tools at its disposal." The EU has struggled to exert influence during the war in Gaza due to splits within the bloc between countries supporting Israel and those closer to the Palestinians. Ministers on Monday will discuss whether to drop proposals for possible sanctions on Israel including curbing trade ties after the Trump ceasefire deal. Israel is pushing for the measures to be dropped, but a raft of EU states argue they should be kept on the table to maintain pressure to secure the peace process.

United Nations' Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Tom Fletcher points at a truck loaded with humanitarian aid as it is on its way to Gaza. OCHA/Handout via REUTERS
Region

UN: aid convoys face challenges in reaching Gaza famine-hit areas

Convoys face challenges reaching north Gaza due to war damage, border road closuresFamine conditions persist in Gaza City area, massive aid influx needed, says UN'To turn the tide on this famine..., it is very important to get these openings,' WFP spokesperson saysThe UN said on Friday aid convoys were struggling to reach famine-hit areas of north Gaza due to war-damaged roads and the continued closure of key routes into the enclave's north despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.Around 560 metric tons of food had entered the Gaza Strip per day on average since the US-brokered halt to two years of devastating war but this was still well below the scale of need, according to the UN World Food Programme.With famine conditions in the Gaza City region, UN humanitarian affairs chief Tom Fletcher said this week thousands of aid vehicles would have to enter weekly to tackle widespread malnutrition, homelessness and a collapse of infrastructure."We're still below what we need, but we're getting there... The ceasefire has opened a narrow window of opportunity, and WFP is moving very quickly and swiftly to scale up food assistance," WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told a news briefing in Geneva.But the WFP said it had not begun distributions in Gaza City, pointing to the continued closure of two border crossings, Zikim and Erez, with Israel in the north of the enclave where the humanitarian debacle is most acute."Access to Gaza City and northern Gaza is extremely challenging," Etefa said, saying the movement of convoys of wheat flour and ready-to-eat food parcels from the south of the territory was being hampered by broken or blocked roads."It is very important to have these openings in the north, this is where the famine took hold. To turn the tide on this famine..., it is very important to get these openings."Global medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said many relief agencies had not fully returned to the north, where hospitals are barely functioning, leaving many Gaza civilians still unable to access regular care.Jacob Granger, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, described the case of a Gaza City woman with a shrapnel wound suffered during the war who was unable to get to a medical facility to change her dressings for five days earlier this month. When she managed to see an MSF nurse and her dressing was unfolded, the wound was infected with worms and maggots, Granger said.Though small amounts of nutrition products have reached the north - the area of heaviest and most devastating fighting between Israel and Hamas - relief convoys were still unable to move significant quantities of food there.Around 950 trucks entered south and central Gaza on Thursday via the Kerem Shalom and Kissufim crossings with Israel, the UN's humanitarian coordination agency said, citing figures from Israel's military aid agency COGAT presented to mediators.That followed around 715 trucks that rolled into Gaza on Wednesday, including 16 bearing fuel and gas, OCHA said.

People watch as Palestinians use an excavator to dig deep into the ground, reportedly searching for bodies in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip Friday.
Region

Committed to Gaza truce and returning hostage remains: Hamas

Hamas insisted it was committed to returning all the hostage remains still unaccounted for under Gaza's ruins, as a Turkish official said specialists dispatched to help find bodies were awaiting Israel's authorisation to enter.Responding to a call from Hamas for help locating the bodies of the 19 hostages, buried under the rubble alongside an untold number of Palestinians, Ankara sent specialists to help in the search.A Turkish official told AFP on Friday that dozens of disaster response specialists were at the Egyptian side of the border awaiting a green light from the Israeli government to enter the war-shattered Palestinian territory.The 81-member team from Turkiye's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) is equipped with specialised search-and-rescue tools, including life-detection devices and trained search dogs."It remains unclear when Israel will allow the Turkish team to enter Gaza," the official said.Under a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, Hamas returned 20 surviving hostages and the remains of nine of 28 known deceased hostages -- along with another body, which Israel said was not that of a former hostage.In exchange, Israel freed nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners from its jails and halted the military campaign that it launched in Gaza after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.A Hamas source told AFP the Turkish delegation is expected to enter Gaza by Sunday.The Turkish official noted that the recovery team's complicated mission included locating both Palestinian and hostage bodies.Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed on Thursday his determination to "secure the return of all hostages" after his defence minister warned that the military would restart the conflict if Hamas failed to do so.Hamas later insisted on "its commitment to the agreement and its implementation, including its keenness to hand over all remaining corpses".But it said the process "may require some time, as some of these corpses were buried in tunnels destroyed by the occupation, while others remain under the rubble of buildings it bombed and demolished".The families of the dead have fumed at Hamas's inability to deliver their loved ones' remains.The main campaign group advocating for the hostages' families has demanded that Israel "immediately halt the implementation of any further stages of the agreement as long as Hamas continues to blatantly violate its obligations".Trump appeared on Wednesday to call for patience when it came to the bodies' return, insisting Hamas was "actually digging" for hostages' remains.The ceasefire deal has so far seen the war grind to a halt after two years of agony for the hostages' families, and constant bombardment and hunger for Gazans.The UN's World Food Programme said on Friday it had been able to move close to 3,000 tonnes of food supplies into Gaza since the ceasefire took hold.But it cautioned it would take time to reverse the famine in the Gaza Strip, saying all crossings needed to be opened to "flood Gaza with food".Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza calls for renewed aid provision, with international organisations eagerly awaiting the reopening of southern Gaza's strategic Rafah crossing.The next phases of the truce should also include the disarmament of Hamas, the offer of amnesty to Hamas leaders who decommission their weapons and establishing the governance of post-war Gaza.The families of the surviving hostages have been able to rejoice in their return after two long years. Others have had to endure the agony of burying the returned remains of their loved ones.Mourners clutching Israeli flags lined the streets in Rishon Lezion on Friday for the funeral convoy of Inbar Hayman, whose body was returned on Wednesday.For many in Gaza, while there was relief that the bombing had stopped, the road to recovery felt impossible as people began clearing the rubble from their destroyed homes."I'm right under the threat of death. It could collapse at any moment," said Ahmad Saleh Sbeih, a Gaza City resident."But there is no choice. This is better than living on the street."The war has killed at least 67,967 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the United Nations considers credible.

Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing wait to cross into the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday, after Israel said it would allow the crossing to reopen for humanitarian aid to enter from Egypt into the Palestinian territory. AFP
Region

Israel should immediately open Gaza crossings to aid: UN humanitarian chief 

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told AFP on Wednesday that Israel should immediately open crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid as part of a ceasefire agreement."We've been calling for unhindered access," Fletcher said in an interview in Cairo, adding that "it should happen now. We want it to happen immediately as part of this agreement", referring to the deal between Israel and Hamas.US President Donald Trump and regional leaders on Monday signed a declaration in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to cement the deal."But the test of this agreement is not the photos and the press conferences and the interviews. The test is that we have children fed, that we have anaesthetics in the hospitals for people getting treatment, that we have tents over people's heads," Fletcher said.The war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with the densely-populated territory reliant on aid that was heavily restricted by Israel, when not cut off outright.At the end of August, the United Nations declared a famine in Gaza, though Israel rejected the declaration.The return of aid is listed in Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza.Fletcher called for all crossings to be opened, and said that in Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump and other world leaders "were unequivocal that we must be allowed to deliver aid at massive scale".On Thursday, Fletcher is to go to the lifeline Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to see preparations there.The crossing remained shut on Wednesday despite reports that it could reopen to aid convoys, as Israel insisted Hamas hand over the remains of the last deceased hostages it holds."I don't know at this stage whether the crossing will open for sure," Fletcher said, adding that teams were also "working to clear the road on the other side".Fletcher said what had aid had entered so far was "a fraction of what's needed", with just "tens of trucks on a good day rather than the hundreds of trucks" required."There's a sense of complete urgency to this," Fletcher said."We are determined to get in there, stop the starvation, rebuild the health sector, clear the rubble and start to give people hope of a better life."

Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing wait to cross into the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday. AFP
Region

Aid trucks roll into Gaza as dispute over hostage bodies is paused

Rafah border crossing due to openAid trucks start enteringIsrael identifying hostage remainsHamas continues crackdownAid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel resumed preparations to open the main Rafah crossing after a dispute over the return of the bodies of dead hostages that had threatened to derail the fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas.Israel had threatened to keep Rafah shut and reduce aid supplies because Hamas was returning bodies too slowly, showing the risks to a truce that has stopped two years of devastating warfare in Gaza and freed all living hostages held by Hamas.However, Hamas returned more Israeli bodies overnight, and an Israeli security official said on Wednesday preparations were under way to open Rafah to Gazan citizens, while a second official said that 600 aid trucks would go in.Hamas returned four bodies confirmed as dead hostages on Monday and another four bodies late on Tuesday, though Israeli authorities said one of those bodies was not that of a hostage.The dispute over the return of bodies still has the potential to upset the ceasefire deal along with other major issues that are yet to be resolved.Later phases of the truce call for Hamas to disarm and cede power, which it has so far refused to do. It has launched a security crackdown, parading its power in Gaza through public executions and clashes with local clans.Longer-term elements of the ceasefire plan, including how Gaza will be governed, the make-up of an international force to take over there and moves towards the creation of a Palestinian state have yet to emerge.Twenty-one bodies of hostages remain in Gaza, though some may be hard to find or recover because of destruction during the conflict. An international task force is meant to find them.The deal also requires Israel to return the bodies of 360 Palestinians. The first group of 45 was handed over on Tuesday and the bodies were being identified, said Palestinian health authorities.The war has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with nearly all inhabitants driven from their homes, a global hunger monitor saying famine was present in the enclave and health authorities overwhelmed."Our situation is utterly tragic. We went back to our homes in the al-Tuffah neighbourhood and found there are no homes at all. There is no shelter. Nothing," said Moemen Hassanein in Gaza City, with tents and shanties behind him.Reuters video showed a first group of trucks moving from the Egyptian side of the border into the Rafah crossing at dawn on Wednesday, some tankers carrying fuel and others loaded with pallets of aid.However, it was not clear if that convoy would complete its crossing into Gaza as part of the 600 trucks that were due to enter the enclave on Wednesday - the full daily complement required under the ceasefire plan. Aid trucks entered Gaza through other crossings."Humanitarian aid continues to enter the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and other crossings after Israeli security inspection," the Israeli security official said.Israel's public broadcaster Kan reported that Wednesday's aid deliveries would include food, medical supplies, fuel, cooking gas and equipment to repair vital infrastructure.Rafah is due to be opened to Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza either entering or exiting the enclave. But those awaiting medical evacuation told Reuters they had not yet received notification to prepare for travel.The Palestinian Authority, which governs in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is preparing to operate the Rafah crossing into Egypt, which it previously did with EU assistance. Israel closed the crossing in 2007 after Hamas took over the enclave, but later allowed some movement through it under an agreement with Egypt.Several other Palestinian factions present in Gaza have backed the days-long Hamas security crackdown as it battles local clans that had tried to take over areas of the territory during the conflict.The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, one of the groups backing the Hamas crackdown, described the clans being targeted as "hubs of crime".The ceasefire envisaged Hamas initially restoring order in Gaza and US President Donald Trump, who brokered the deal, endorsed Hamas' crackdown on rival gangs, while warning it would face airstrikes if it did not later disarm.Israeli forces inside Gaza have pulled back to what the truce deal calls a yellow line just outside the main cities. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said it would immediately enforce any violation of the line.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid prepared by the Egyptian Red Crescent, which are to enter the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip Wednesday, line up, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect, in Al-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai Governorate, Egypt, on Tuesday. REUTERS
Region

Israel cuts agreed aid into Gaza

Israeli forces kill six people in GazaIsrael will only allow half the agreed number of aid trucks into Gaza starting Wednesday, in a setback to hopes food and supplies would be quickly ramped up to ease famine in the enclave.COGAT, the Israeli military arm that oversees aid flows into Gaza, also notified the UN that no fuel or gas will be allowed into the enclave except for specific needs related to humanitarian infrastructure.COGAT blamed Palestinian resistance movement Hamas for a slow release of hostage bodies for the decision to limit aid trucks to 300 daily. The group has said locating the bodies is difficult."Hamas violated the agreement regarding the release of the bodies of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip. As a result, the political leadership has decided to impose a number of sanctions related to the humanitarian agreement that was reached," read the COGAT note.So far, Hamas has handed over four coffins of dead hostages, leaving at least 23 presumed dead and one unaccounted for still in Gaza. The group informed mediators it will begin transferring four more bodies to Israel later Tuesday."We have received this communication from the Israeli authorities," Olga Cherevko, a spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, told reporters. "We certainly very much hope that the bodies of the hostages are handed over and that the ceasefire continues to be implemented."COGAT had said on Friday that it expected about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily during the ceasefire. COGAT told the UN that 817 trucks had entered Gaza on Sunday, said Cherevko. Israel has delayed plans to open the southern Rafah border crossing to Egypt, three Israeli officials said.US President Donald Trump declared an end to the Israel-Hamas conflict on Monday as the last living Israeli hostages were swapped for Palestinian detainees.$70bn needed to rebuild GazaThe United Nations has estimated the cost of rebuilding the Gaza Strip at approximately $70bn, based on the Interim Damage Assessment conducted by the UN, the European Union, and the World Bank.This assessment, published on March 29, 2024, indicates that the total damage in Gaza amounted to $18.5bn by the end of January 2024. However, the full recovery and reconstruction costs are expected to be significantly higher, potentially reaching up to $70bn, depending on the scale of reconstruction efforts and the extent of international support.Arafat nephew returnsA nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has returned to the West Bank after four years of self-exile, outlining a roadmap to secure peace in Gaza with Hamas transforming into a political party and declaring his readiness to help govern.Nasser al-Qudwa, a prominent critic of the current Palestinian leadership, also urged "a serious confrontation of corruption in this country". He said President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement needed deep reform and must do more to counter Jewish settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Israeli forces kill 6 GazansGaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed six Palestinians in separate incidents Tuesday, while the military reported its troops had opened fire on suspects who approached their positions.Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas, said five people were killed as they inspected their homes in the Shujaiya district of Gaza City.In a similar incident, Bassal said an Israeli drone strike killed one person when it targeted a group of civilians in the town of Al-Fukhari, southeast of Khan Yunis city.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid prepared by the Egyptian Red Crescent, which are to enter the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip Wednesday, line up, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect, in Al-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai Governorate, Egypt, on Tuesday. REUTERS
Region

No aid scale-up yet in Gaza: aid agencies

Israel pledged 600 trucks a day into Gaza after ceasefireCrossings into North Gaza still shut, aid groups sayIsrael delayed plans to reopen Rafah crossingSome aid groups say they cannot import goodsA major ramp-up of aid needed to ease famine and suffering in Gaza after two years of war has yet to happen, the Red Cross and UN agencies said on Tuesday, as Israeli authorities warned of slower aid flows as the southern Rafah crossing remained shut.Three Israeli officials said Israel had decided to restrict aid into the shattered Gaza Strip and delay plans to open the border crossing to Egypt at least through Wednesday, because Hamas had been too slow to turn over bodies of dead hostages.Hamas has said locating the bodies is difficult, as not all burial sites amid the widespread rubble of Gaza are known."We need all crossings open. The longer Rafah stays closed the more the suffering prolongs for people in Gaza, especially those displaced in the South," Unicef spokesperson Ricardo Pires said.US President Donald Trump declared an end to the Israel-Hamas conflict on Monday as the last living Israeli hostages were swapped for Palestinian detainees, raising expectations that aid supplies would be rushed into the enclave where a global hunger monitor has warned hundreds of thousands of people face famine.COGAT, the arm of the Israeli military that oversees aid flows into Gaza, said on Friday that it expected about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily during the ceasefire. It did not respond to a request for further comment on Tuesday. All of the aid so far has been through the south and central crossing of Kissufim, UN agencies said, with those at the epicentre of the humanitarian crisis in northern Gaza, to where tens of thousands of people are returning, still shut."The shift has not yet happened. We are still witnessing only few trucks coming in, and large crowds approaching these trucks in a way that does absolutely not conform to humanitarian standards," ICRC spokesperson Christian Cardon told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said only some 350 humanitarian aid trucks have entered Gaza in the last few days.The UN World Food Programme said on Tuesday that it has brought in 137 trucks since the weekend, noting it also has not yet seen a ramp-up in aid. None of its aid entered Gaza on Monday because of the hostage-prisoner exchange, it added.Aid agencies are seeking to rapidly scale up supplies to people in Gaza City, where up to 400,000 people have not received assistance for several weeks, according to the WFP.Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram said it has been able to bring in dozens of trucks with lifesaving supplies, such as family tents, plastic tarpaulin sheets, winter clothes and hygiene kits."Hopefully scale-up can be seen in earnest later this week," she added.Around 50 international aid groups, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE and Oxfam, have still not received clearance for supplies to enter as they face ongoing registration barriers."We're in this limbo ... The needs of a population that has experienced famine over a period of months is not going to be met with a few trucks," Bushra Khalidi, an Oxfam policy adviser said.COGAT previously said that aid trucks operated by the UN and "approved international organizations", the private sector, and donor countries would be allowed to enter Gaza.Catholic Relief Services has, however, received permission to bring in supplies with shelter as a priority, Jason Knapp, an official with Catholic Relief Services, told Reuters from Gaza.

Red Crescent vehicles and refrigerated trucks, transporting the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been in Israeli custody, arrive at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday. AFP
Region

Israel identifies hostage bodies, returns 45 Palestinian dead

The Israeli military said Tuesday that the remains of four deceased hostages returned by Hamas have been identified, including those of a Nepalese student.Separately, a Gaza hospital said it has received the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been handed back by Israel, also as part of US President Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza war.In a statement, the Israeli military named two of the victims as Guy Iluz, an Israeli national, and Bipin Joshi, an agriculture student from Nepal.The names of the other two hostages have not yet been released at the request of their families, the statement added.Iluz, who was 26 at the time of the attack, had been attending the Nova music festival when assault happened on October 7, 2023.Joshi, who was 22 at the time of the attack, was part of a Nepalese agricultural training group that had arrived in Israel three weeks before the Hamas assault.He was abducted from Kibbutz Alumim.Hamas returned the four bodies on Monday, following the release of all 20 surviving captives as part of the ceasefire deal brokered by Trump.Meanwhile, the bodies of 45 Palestinians that had been in Israeli custody were handed over to the Nasser Medical Centre in Gaza, the hospital said.Under the Trump deal, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.Palestinian fighters are still holding the bodies of 24 hostages, which are expected to be returned under the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Gulf Times
Qatar

Minister of State for International Cooperation meets with Egypt's Ambassador

Her Excellency Dr. Maryam bint Ali bin Nasser Al Misnad, Minister of State for International Cooperation, met today with Walid Fahmy Al Faqi, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the State of Qatar.During the meeting, they discussed bilateral cooperation between the two countries, particularly in the field of delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Gulf Times
Qatar

Amir hopes summit results will lead to just solution for Palestinian cause

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani expressed his hope that the positive results from the Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit will meet the aspirations of the people in the Gaza Strip and contribute to a comprehensive and just solution for the Palestinian cause.In a post on his official X account, His Highness the Amir voiced happiness with the positive outcomes of the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit. He expressed hope that these results would serve as a starting point for more future agreements that fulfill the hopes of the people in Gaza and lead to a comprehensive, just, and sustainable resolution of the Palestinian cause, looking forward to all parties committing to the common understanding that has been reached, for the good of everyone.

Gulf Times
Qatar

Amir meets several heads of state, government

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met Monday with a number of leaders of nations and heads of government and delegations participating in the Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit, at the International Convention Centre in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. His Highness the Amir held separate meetings with King Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein of Jordan, French President Emmanuel Macron, Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UAE Vice-President, Deputy Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Presidential Court Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan. During the meetings, they exchanged views on the most important topics on the summit's agenda, particularly those related to reaching an agreement to end the war in Gaza, the flow of humanitarian aid to the Strip, and supporting peace and security in the region. They also discussed ways to support and strengthen co-operation and relations within the international community across various fields. The meetings were attended by HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, HE the Chief of the Amiri Diwan Abdullah bin Mohammed al-Khulaifi, and a number of members of the official delegation accompanying His Highness the Amir.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and other world leaders who attended the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit Monday.
Qatar

Glowing praise for Amir's pivotal role in ending Gaza war

US President Donald Trump affirmed Monday that the signing of the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Agreement has ended the war in the Gaza Strip, and that this heralds the beginning of a strong Middle East living in peace.He extended thanks to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and to the Arab and Muslim nations that assisted in reaching the deal.Speaking at the Sharm el-Sheikh Peace Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, President Trump thanked Arab and Muslim states for making the breakthrough possible. He offered particular thanks for His Highness the Amir, describing him as "an exceptional man who is greatly respected." Trump declared that the nations had collectively achieved peace in the Middle East, something widely considered impossible. He called the signed document "historic" and "the greatest deal ever," confirming that the fighting in Gaza was finished and that aid deliveries had started. He promised to lead the Middle East toward a better future.The US President assured the attendees that a Third World War would be avoided in the Middle East.While acknowledging the difficulty of the initial steps toward peace, he stated that the momentum was now moving toward achieving lasting peace in the region and that this was a unique opportunity. He urged all parties to maintain the collaborative spirit to ensure the continuation of this historic success.Trump reiterated the historical significance of the achievement, calling for a demilitarised Gaza and a safe Middle East. He also confirmed an agreement on the necessity of supporting the reconstruction of Gaza.Acknowledging the challenges ahead, the president suggested that the rebuilding of Gaza might be the most difficult phase. He noted that wealthy nations had already informed him of their willingness to assist in the reconstruction efforts. Furthermore, he mentioned that many wish to join the "Peace Council on Gaza," which may require expansion.Finally, President Trump extended his condolences to Qatar for the recent tragic incident in Sharm el- Sheikh that resulted in the deaths of several Amiri Diwan employees.His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived earlier Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to head Qatar's delegation participating in the summit for peace.His Highness the Amir was welcomed upon arrival at Sharm El-Sheikh International Airport by Egyptian Minister of Culture Dr. Ahmed Fouad Hano, and Qatar's Ambassador to Egypt Tariq bin Ali al-Ansari.His Highness is accompanied by HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani and an official delegation.