Qatar may be responsible for the collapse of the ceasefire with Hamas, having allegedly threatened the terror leader with expulsion should he agree to a truce.
A senior Fatah official was quoted by the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat as saying that the Qatari government threatened to expel Khaled Mashaal, the Hamas political bureau chief, should the terror group accept the Egyptian ceasefire proposal, according to a story in The Jerusalem Post.
“Mashaal, who is based in Qatar, has been blamed by Israeli officials in recent days for sabotaging a long-term truce along the Gaza front by repeatedly making new demands that Jerusalem is unwilling to meet,” the Post says.
“The Fatah official told Al-Hayat that Hamas has insisted that Qatar be given a seat at the negotiating table in Cairo. According to the official, Hamas wants either the Qatari foreign minister or the head of intelligence to be permitted to take part in the discussions,” the Post reports.
“Egypt has adamantly refused to permit Qatar to participate in the ceasefire talks, according to the report,” the story continues. “Cairo wants a Qatari apology for the government’s policies toward Egypt since the military coup against the Muslim Brotherhood brought Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to power.”