Gaza truce negotiators signal pessimism at Munich meeting

Talks between Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire in Gaza were "not really very promising" in recent days, the prime minister of Qatar, a key mediator for the negotiations, said Saturday.

"I believe that we can see a deal happening very soon...yet the pattern in the last few days is not really very promising," Qatar's Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said at the Munich Security Conference.

"We will always remain optimistic, we will always remain pushing," he added, speaking in English.

"Time is not in our favour", he said, casting forward to beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 10.

Al-Thani did not disclose many details about the highly sensitive talks.

But he did say that if an agreement were found on the "humanitarian side of the agreement", there would be a deal on the "numbers" for an exchange of hostages and prisoners.

However, a truce between Hamas and Israel should not depend on a deal to release hostages held by Hamas, Al-Thani said.

"This is the dilemma that we've been in and unfortunately that's been misused by a lot of countries -- that in order to get a ceasefire, it's conditional to have the hostage deal. It shouldn't be conditioned," he said.

Failure to reach a deal could lead to a wider escalation in the region, he warned.

Normalisation path

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who met with Al-Thani during the Munich conference, praised the "major effort" by the Qatari PM to advance talks.

Finding a solution for the hostages was "the mont important thing", Herzog said.

The Israeli president also called on Saudi Arabia to normalise ties with his country as that would be a win against Hamas.

Stopping progress towards normalising ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel has been one of Hamas's aims, Herzog said.

"That is why moving on with Saudi Arabia will clearly be a victory over what Hamas did," he argued.

Herzog echoed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said during the conference that normalising ties with multiple Arab nations, was an "extraordinary opportunity".

However, a precondition would be an end to the conflict and moves "to proceed to a Palestinian state", Blinken said.

Israel has faced growing international pressure to agree a ceasefire with Hamas, as it prepares an incursion into the crowded southern city of Rafah in Gaza.

Fears have grown for some 1.4 million Palestinians who have taken refuge in the city, close to the border with Egypt.

The Gaza war began with Hamas's October 7 attack which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Militants also took about 250 people hostage, 130 of whom are still in Gaza, including 30 who are presumed dead, according to Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory's health ministry.