Israel-Hamas war: First aid vessel sails from Cyprus; Qatar says truce is ‘complicated’

Israel and Hamas are not close to a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and free hostages, mediator Qatar said, warning that the situation remained “very complicated”.

Despite weeks of talks involving US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began without the start of a truce and hostage exchange they had aimed for.

“We are not near a deal, meaning that we are not seeing both sides converging on language that can resolve the current disagreement over the implementation of a deal,” said foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

All parties were “continuing to work in the negotiations to reach a deal hopefully within the confines of Ramadan”, Ansari told a news conference.

But he could not “offer any timeline” on an agreement while the conflict remained “very complicated on the ground”.

Qatar previously mediated a one-week break in fighting in late November that led to the release of scores of Israeli and foreign hostages, as well as aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory. It has also sent aid and humanitarian packages.

Ansari was asked whether Qatar had exerted pressure on Hamas, which has its political office in Doha, in efforts to reach a truce.

“As a mediator that has been exchanging views between both sides, I don’t think it is useful to use such terminology (of) pressure or using leverage,” he said.

But he said Qatar was “certainly using everything that we have in our capabilities to push both sides to an agreement”.

The wealthy Gulf emirate, which hosts the largest US military base in the Middle East, is also the main residence of the Islamists’ self-exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Haniyeh said the Palestinian militant group was still open to talks with Israel but added Hamas wanted a durable ceasefire, a withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the return of displaced Gazans to their homes and more access to humanitarian aid.

Israel has rejected a complete withdrawal of its troops, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue his campaign to destroy Hamas, even after any truce deal.

It comes as a Spanish charity ship taking 200 tonnes of humanitarian food aid to war-ravaged Gaza set sail from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, aiming to pioneer a “maritime corridor”.

A second ship was being readied to soon make the same journey to help besieged Palestinians, Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos told state radio.

The Spanish non-government group Open Arms told AFP that its ship, with a barge in tow, had started the almost 400 kilometre voyage from the port of Larnaca but did not specify where and when the vessel was expected to arrive, for security reasons.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who days ago announced the initiative on a Cyprus visit, hailed it as a “sign of hope”.

“We will work hard together for many more ships to follow,” she said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. “We will do everything in our power for aid to reach Palestinians.”

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said on X the inaugural voyage from the island, the closest EU member state to Gaza, was “one of hope and humanity” and would establish a “lifeline to civilians”.

Also on Tuesday, four US Army vessels departed a base in Virginia carrying about 100 soldiers and equipment needed to build a temporary port on Gaza’s coast for urgently needed aid deliveries.

The new facility, which will consist of an offshore platform for transshipment of aid from larger to smaller vessels and a pier to bring it ashore, is expected to be up and running “at the 60-day mark,” US Army Brigadier General Brad Hinson told journalists.