Qatari PM Thani says attack on IDF soldiers was violation of ceasefire by 'Palesinian side'

In remarks on Wednesday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said that the recent attacks on IDF soldiers in Rafah, in which a reserve soldier was killed, were a violation by Palestinians of the peace plan of U.S. President Donald Trump. 

While speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, al-Thani affirmed that both parties are committed to the peace plan stating that “both parties acknowledge that the ceasefire should hold, and they should stick to the agreement.” 

“We've been engaging with both parties in a very intensive way in order to ensure that the ceasefire holds. And the US engagement, of course, was key in that,” al-Thani remarked. 

He also appeared to echo U.S. Vice President Vance’s statement about “skirmishes” being expected. 

“I believe that what happened yesterday was a violation and what we were expecting that this violation also will be, there will be a response,” al-Thani stated. He also acknowledged that the event “was honestly something that [was] very disappointing and frustrating for us to see.” 

However, when asked to clarify whether the attack was a violation by Hamas, the Qatari prime minister, whose country has supported Hamas financially for years, and hosts several of the top leaders, demurred. 

“Well, look, if we will start to describe the violations, it will be an open-ended question. But what happened yesterday, the attack on the Israeli soldiers, that’s basically a violation by the Palestinian party,” al-Thani responded. 

Sheikh al-Thani referred to reports from Palestinian sources which challenged Hamas responsibility for the attack. 

“Now we have also conflicting statements from Hamas itself that we need the clarifications [for] and we need an answer from them on that,” he said. “Now, Hamas has put [out] a statement that they are not in communication with this group. We don't know yet.” 

He said Qatar had received “some statements mentioning that this group is [one] they lost communication with and they they don't know what they are doing, and another response from them that what happened is is by a group which are not related to them.” 

He said the most important issue is to secure the ceasefire. 

“What matters to us is how we make sure that we safeguard the agreement. We make sure that this event or this occasion doesn't affect or make this agreement collapse.” 

Al-Thani said that Qatar is working with Hamas to make sure the agreement is maintained. 

“We heard some discussions about that Hamas are trying to delay the bodies. And we made it very clear for them that this is part of the commitment that we needed to be fulfilled,” he stated. 

“Our job today is to protect it [the peace agreement] and to safeguard it and to make sure that it holds and then also make sure that it's implemented,” al-Thani said about Qatar’s work with Hamas. “It will be a complicated process. It will not be an easy process to go through the disarmament and the decommissioning, but it's part of the agreement.” 

Al-Thani said the mediators are still working with Hamas to fulfill its responsibility regarding handing over its weapons.  

“I don’t see that the governance will be a challenge, because this is something that we’ve been very clear with Hamas, and Hamas’ response was also very clear to us that they are willing to give up the governance,” the Qatari prime minister explained. 

“The weapon question, from their perspective, this is an obligation on all the factions, not Hamas only,” he said. “And basically we are trying to push them all in order to get to a point where they acknowledge that they need to disarm and they need to move on to the next stage and we need to make sure that the Palestinians are safe and the Israelis are safe.”