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As of October 19, Israel has carried out at least 80 breaches of the ceasefire deal, killing around 100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the United States’ President Donald Trump discussed the implementation of the recently-announced Gaza ceasefire deal during a brief meeting in the Gulf state on Saturday evening. The meeting took place on Trump’s Air Force One during a refueling halt at the Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the region’s largest U.S. military base. The stopover took place en-route to Malaysia, where Trump is holding key talks as part of a five-day Asia tour. Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio were also present in the discussions. “It [the meeting] was a good opportunity to discuss peace plans in the Middle East, to follow up on the implementation of the agreement to end the war in Gaza, and to talk about the prospects for strategic cooperation that brings our two friendly nations together,” Sheikh Tamim said on X. Trump also praised Qatar’s Amir during their meeting, highlighting the past year’s joint mediation efforts in ensuring “peace in the Middle East”. “We’ve done a lot together, especially in the last year,” Trump told media aboard the Air Force One. “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,” he added. Trump, in his remarks to the press after the meeting, pointed to Qatari troops, along with ones from other countries, potentially joining an “international stabilisation force” for Gaza. “We have 59 countries. We have a lot of countries that are signed on,” Trump said, adding that “this should be an enduring peace.” Qatar, the U.S., Egypt, and Türkiye brokered an agreement over the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire between Hamas and Israel on October 9. The countries mediated the deal following a round of intensive negotiations in Sharm El-Sheikh at the time. However, Israel has persisted in its violations of the deal since it came into force on October 10 by launching deadly airstrikes on the Gaza Strip while delaying the opening of the vital Rafah Crossing. As of October 19, Israel has carried out at least 80 breaches of the ceasefire deal, killing around 100 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the latest update by the local government media office. Israel has only allowed 986 aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip since the deal came into effect, significantly lower than the 6,600 trucks that were supposed to enter, the government media office said on October 21 via Telegram. “This reflects the continuation of the policy of suffocation, starvation, and humanitarian blackmail practiced by the occupation against more than 2.4 million residents of Gaza,” the office said in its statement. Meanwhile, on Saturday, Israeli occupation forces targeted a civilian vehicle in the central Gaza Strip, injuring four Palestinians, marking another violation of the deal. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 68,519 people in the Gaza Strip, as local rescuers continue searching for an estimated 10,000 bodies trapped under the rubble.
