After more than a year of conflict between Hamas and Israel, Qatar has decided to end its role as mediator between the two belligerents. Meanwhile in Gaza, the famine threatens the populationtargeted by Israeli fire. Le Figaro reports on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

Qatar announces withdrawal from mediation between Israel and Hamas

Qatar has withdrawn its mediation between Israel and Palestinian Hamas after months of unsuccessful efforts to end the war in the Gaza Strip, a diplomatic source said on Saturday. It also said that Hamas’s political office in Doha “is no longer relevant”.added the same source, without explicitly saying whether the office would be closed.

“The Qataris have informed the Israelis and Hamas that as long as both sides refuse to negotiate a good-faith agreement, they will not be able to continue mediating.”said the source on condition of anonymity. “As a result, the Hamas political office (in Doha) is no longer relevant.”

The Hamas office in Qatar has been “opened in 2012 in coordination with the U.S. government, following its request for a communications channel.” with the movement, a Qatari official explained at the start of the war.

Together with the United States and Egypt Qatar led a mediation between the two belligerents since a single truce in the conflict in November 2023, which lasted a week and led to the release of hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Since then, numerous negotiation sessions have taken place without any result.

Hamas and Israel accuse each other of blocking any agreement, each side refusing the other’s conditions for a ceasefire in the war triggered on October 7, 2023 by an attack on Israel by the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Hamas official says movement has received “no request to leave Qatar”

A Hamas official told AFP on Saturday that the Palestinian Islamist movement had received “no request” to leave Qatar. “no request to leave Qatar”. “We have nothing to confirm or deny what was published by an unidentified diplomatic source, and we have received no request to leave Qatar.”said the Hamas official from Doha.

Famine threatens Gaza

Famine looms in the northern Gaza Strip, against a backdrop of intensification of Israeli army operations and an almost total halt to food aid, warns a UN report on Saturday. This report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warns of “an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip.”. “Famine thresholds may have already been crossed or will be crossed in the near future.”says the report.

On October 17, a previous IPC report, the fruit of the expertise of NGOs and UN agencies including the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), had estimated that some 345,000 Gazans would face hunger at a level of “catastrophic” between November and April 2025, i.e. 16% of the population. This assessment corresponds to the highest level of the Integrated Food Security Framework, level 5 (3: crisis, 4: emergency, 5: disaster).

Since then, however, the situation has deteriorated in the north of the Gaza Strip, with the collapse of food systems, a drop in humanitarian aid and a critical water, sanitation and hygiene situation, the report points out. “It can therefore be estimated that hunger, malnutrition and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease are increasing rapidly.”he says.

14 dead in two Israeli strikes

The Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip announced on Saturday morning the deaths of 14 people, killed in two Israeli strikes, one “on a schoolthe other on a “tents for displaced persons. Committed against the Palestinian Sunni Islamist movement Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip, as well as against the Lebanese Shiite Islamist movement Hezbollah in Lebanonthe Israeli army announced without further details that it had struck in the last 24 hours “more than 50 terrorist targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, including military structures, weapons depots and launchers”. projectiles.

Fourteen Palestinians killed overnight and Saturday morning “in two raids targeting a school in Gaza City”.in the North, and a tented camp for displaced persons in Khan Younes“in the south of the Gaza Strip, said Mahmoud Bassal, Civil Defense spokesman for this small Palestinian coastal territory devastated by more than a year of war. A missile strike on the Fahad al-Sabah school, a facility in the Al-Touffah district of Gaza City that, like almost all the schools in the Gaza Strip, has been converted into an emergency accommodation center, caused “five dead, including children, and 22 wounded”.said Mahmoud Bassal in a statement.

The other Israeli air strike, “on tents of displaced people in Khan Younès left 9 dead and 11 wounded”he added.

43,550 Palestinians killed, according to Hamas

More than 43,550 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory military campaign on the Gaza Strip, the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health for Gaza, deemed reliable by the UN. In October, “at least 64 attacks on schools – practically two a day – were recorded in the Gaza Strip”Unicef reported on Friday.

Gaza schools “serve primarily as shelters for displaced children and families”notes Unicef, pointing out that“under international humanitarian law, schools are protected spaces”.. Since the start of the war, however, the UN agency has deplored the situation, “more than 95% of schools have been partially or totally destroyed”..

The Israeli army regularly accuses Hamas fighters and other Palestinian armed groups of violating the law. “systematically violating international law (by) using the inhabitants as human shields”.. It asserts that it is striving to “minimize damage to non-combatants before attacks”..