US, Qatar, Egypt, Turkey urge Gaza ceasefire compliance
The United States, along with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, called on all parties to the Gaza ceasefire to honor their commitments and show restraint, the top U.S. envoy said Saturday following talks in Miami, News.Az reports, citing the Arab Weekly.
Top officials from each nation met Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, to review the first stage of the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10.“We reaffirm our full commitment to the entirety of the President’s 20-point peace plan and call on all parties to uphold their obligations, exercise restraint, and cooperate with monitoring arrangements,” said a statement posted by Witkoff on X.
Their meeting came amid continuing strains on the agreement. Gaza’s civil defence said six people were killed on Friday in Israeli shelling of a shelter. That brought to 400 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the deal took effect.
Israel has also repeatedly accused Hamas of violating the truce, with the military reporting of its three soldiers killed in the territory since October. Saturday’s statement cited progress yielded in the first stage of the peace agreement, including expanded humanitarian assistance, return of hostage bodies, partial force withdrawals and a reduction in hostilities.
It called for “the near-term establishment and operationalisation” of a transitional administration which is due to happen in the second phase of the agreement, and said consultations would continue in the coming weeks over its implementation.
Under the deal’s terms, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas, and an international stabilisation force is to be deployed.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed hope that countries would contribute troops for the stabilisation force, but also urged the disarmament of Hamas, warning the process would unravel unless that happened.
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