US, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey urge restraint, push next phase of Gaza peace plan
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MIAMI: The United States joined Qatar, Egypt and Turkey on Saturday (Dec 20) in urging all parties to the Gaza ceasefire to uphold their commitments and exercise restraint, following talks in Miami aimed at stabilising the fragile truce.
Top officials from the four countries met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff to review the first phase of the ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10 after more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
“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,” Witkoff said in a statement posted on X.
ONGOING STRAINS ON CEASEFIRE
The meeting took place amid continued strains on the agreement. Gaza’s civil defence agency said six people were killed on Friday in Israeli shelling of a shelter, bringing to about 400 the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the truce began.
Israel, meanwhile, has repeatedly accused Hamas of breaching the ceasefire, with its military reporting that three Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since October.
Against this backdrop, Turkey said it was holding parallel discussions with Hamas on moving the deal forward. Turkish security sources said the head of Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, Ibrahim Kalin, met Hamas negotiating team leader Khalil Al-Hayya in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss steps needed to proceed to the second phase of the peace plan.
According to the sources, the talks covered measures to address what they described as Israeli violations of the ceasefire, as well as unresolved issues that could hinder progress to the next stage of the agreement. No further details were given.
TRANSITIONAL AUTHORITY PLANNED
The four countries called for the “near-term establishment and operationalisation” of a transitional administration for Gaza, which is due to take shape in the second phase of the agreement. They said consultations would continue in the coming weeks on how to implement the next steps.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, Israel is expected to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, Hamas is to be replaced by an interim governing authority, and an international stabilisation force is to be deployed in the territory.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington hoped other countries would contribute troops to such a force, but he also warned that the process would collapse unless Hamas was disarmed.
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