Trump thanks Qatar for mediation efforts as talks on Gaza plan continue

United States President Donald Trump has thanked Qatar for its efforts in securing a ceasefire deal in Gaza as Israeli forces continued attacks on the Palestinian territory, killing at least one person and wounding four others.

Trump made the comments on Saturday as he welcomed Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani on board Air Force One on Saturday, as the US president’s plane stopped to refuel in the Gulf country on its way to a summit in Malaysia.

“We’ve done a lot together, especially in the last year,” Trump said alongside the Qatari leaders.

“What we’ve done is incredible – peace to the Middle East – and they were a very big factor in it, so I just want to thank you.”

For his part, the Qatari Emir, in a post on X, said he was pleased to meet Trump and that their meeting was a “good opportunity to discuss peace plans in the Middle East, follow up on efforts to solidify the agreement to end the war in Gaza, and explore prospects for strategic cooperation between our two friendly nations”.

The meeting comes after several senior Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, visited Israel this week to ensure the US ally abides by the deal, and to discuss the details of phase two of the Washington-led plan.

Experts say several elements of the agreement, including Washington’s demand that Hamas disarm and the prospect of deploying an international security force to Gaza, remain unclear.

Trump, speaking to reporters following his meeting with the Qatari emir, said that the truce will continue to hold, and if not, “Hamas will not be hard to take care of”.

“It will be very quickly. But I hope it holds for Hamas, too, because they gave us their word on something,” he said.

Trump also suggested that Qatari troops and those of other countries may be part of the so-called “international stabilisation force” for Gaza.

“We have 59 countries. We have a lot of countries that are signed on,” he said. “This should be an enduring peace.”

The security force for Gaza could be in place “pretty quickly”, he added. “They are actually picking leaders right now.”

The Qatari government, in a readout of the talks on Air Force One, shared by the Qatar News Agency, said the leaders discussed a range of issues, including efforts related to “supporting peace in the region, consolidating the agreement to end the war in Gaza, and ensuring the parties’ implementation of all its provisions”.

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from the Qatari capital, Doha, said the meeting comes amid pressure from Israel and the US on Hamas to release the bodies of all the remaining Israelis taken captive during the attacks of October 7, 2023.

“That has been a point of contention, [with] Israel saying that Hamas has not in the past four days returned any of those bodies,” she said.

“Hamas, for its part, has said it needs more time to access areas that have been out of reach as a result of the war and the heavy bombardment that has come down on the Strip.”

Meanwhile, Israel has continued to carry out deadly strikes across Gaza and restrict deliveries of humanitarian aid to Palestinians across the territory, putting further strain on the shaky ceasefire.

Israeli forces killed at least one person and wounded four others in an attack on a vehicle in the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza, with the Israeli military claiming it was targeting a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who had been planning to attack Israeli troops.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, described the attack as a “breach of an already fragile ceasefire”.

“This is not the first time we are seeing a violation of the ceasefire. Over the past two weeks, there has been 88 violations involving the killing of displaced families trying to get back to their homes behind what the Israeli military describes as the ‘yellow line’ – an imaginary line that seeks to redraw the map of Gaza and which eats up the majority of the territory’s agricultural land,” Mahmoud said.

Despite the Israeli violations, US officials have sought to project a positive message, telling reporters this week that the deal was progressing well despite more work needing to be done.

Speaking to reporters separately on Saturday, Rubio said that American officials would get input on a possible United Nations resolution or international agreement to authorise the multinational force in Gaza.

The US state secretary added that he would discuss the issue in Qatar on Sunday.

“Many of the countries that have expressed an interest in participating at some level – whether it be monetary or personnel or both – are going to need that [a UN resolution or international agreement], because their domestic laws require it,” Rubio said.

“So we have a whole team working on that outline of it.”

According to Al Jazeera’s Jabbari in Doha, the message from the Trump administration on Saturday was that Qatar has a key role to play as the negotiations progress.

“The United States president has highlighted that, without their mediating efforts, this ceasefire would not have been possible in the first place,” she said.

“And of course, moving forward, in order to advance from one stage to the next, it has to be with the input and consultation of the Qataris.”