Qatar warns continued Israeli strikes against Gaza 'complicates prisoners release'

DOHA, Qatar. (AA) - Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman warned Saturday that continuous Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip would complicate the release of hostages, according to the official Qatari News Agency (QNA).

The comes came during a meeting between Ibn Abdul Rahman and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting in Jordan to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, it said.

QNA said the Qatari foreign minister stressed "Qatar's continued efforts as a mediator to release the prisoners, pointing out that the continued (Israeli) bombing adds up to the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and complicates securing the release of the prisoners."

He stressed "the necessity of concerted regional and international diplomatic efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire, and to permanently open the Rafah crossing to ensure the flow of relief convoys and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian brothers besieged in the Gaza Strip."

The meeting was held in Amman and gathered Blinke with his counterparts from Qatar, Jordan’s Ayman Al-Safadi, Emirati Abdullah bin Zayed, Saudi Arabian Faisal bin Farhan and Sameh Shukri from Egypt, in addition to the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Hussein Al-Sheikh.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry condemned, in a separate statement, “the Israeli occupation’s bombing of Al-Fakhoura School,” which houses thousands of displaced residents in the Jabalia refugee camp and several hospitals in Gaza.

The practices were described as “brutal massacres and heinous crimes against defenseless civilians, and a blatant violation of the provisions of international law and international humanitarian law,” according to the ministry.

It reiterated that the expansion of Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip "is considered a dangerous escalation in the course of confrontations, and portends dire consequences for the security and stability of the region."

It also warned that "the international community's complicity, sometimes through silence and other times through selectivity, regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity, increases the state of tension and expands the cycle of violence," according to QNA.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced Saturday that 15 Palestinians were killed and more than 70 others were injured from an Israeli bombing that targeted the Al-Fakhoura School, affiliated with the UN Refugee and Works Agency, in Jabalia Camp in northern Gaza.