Talks Over Gaza Ceasefire at Stalemate After Rafah Operation, Qatar PM Says 

A Palestinian boy looks out his tent in a Rafah displacement camp in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks out his tent in a Rafah displacement camp in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
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Talks Over Gaza Ceasefire at Stalemate After Rafah Operation, Qatar PM Says 

A Palestinian boy looks out his tent in a Rafah displacement camp in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy looks out his tent in a Rafah displacement camp in the southern Gaza Strip on May 13, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas group. (AFP)

Talks over a ceasefire in Gaza have reached a stalemate due to Israel's operations in Rafah, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Tuesday.

Israeli operations in Rafah, which started this month, have closed a main crossing point for aid from the border with Egypt a move humanitarian groups say has worsened an already dire situation.

"Especially in the past few weeks, we have seen some momentum building but unfortunately, things didn't move in the right direction and right now we are in a status of almost a stalemate. Of course, what happened with Rafah sent us backward," Sheikh Mohammed said at an economic forum in Doha.

Sheikh Mohammed, whose country has mediated heavily between Palestinian group Hamas and Israel throughout the seven-month conflict, said Qatar would keep working to resolve the situation.

"We make it very clear for everyone: our job is limited to our mediation," he said. "That's what we will do, that what we will continue to do."

Sheikh Mohammed said the fundamental difference between the two parties was over the release of hostages and ending the war.

More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip, say health officials in the Hamas-ruled enclave. The war began when Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 252 others, of whom 133 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

"There is one party that wants to end the war and then talk about the hostages and there is another party who wants the hostages and wants to continue the war. As long as there is not any commonality between those two things it won't get us to a result," Sheikh Mohammed said.



Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah Warns US Against Intervening in Israel-Iran Conflict

 Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
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Iraq's Kataib Hezbollah Warns US Against Intervening in Israel-Iran Conflict

 Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)
Protesters hold Iranian flags during a protest against Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, at a bridge leading to the fortified Green Zone where the US embassy is located in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP)

Iran-aligned Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah warned on Sunday it would resume attacks on US troops in the region if the United States intervenes in the conflict between Israel and Iran.

"We are closely monitoring the movements of the American enemy's army in the region," Kataib Hezbollah Secretary-General Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi said in a statement. "If America intervenes in the war, we will act directly against its interests and bases spread across the region without hesitation."

Founded in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah is one of the elite Iraqi armed factions closest to Iran. The group, a key pillar of Iran's network of regional proxy forces, has claimed responsibility for dozens of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and US forces in both Iraq and Syria.

Early last year, Kataib Hezbollah announced the suspension of all its military operations against US troops in the region in response to efforts by the Iraqi government.

Kataib Hezbollah is part of a coalition of Iran-aligned groups known collectively as the "Axis of Resistance" — an umbrella of hardline Shiite armed factions that have claimed more than 150 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria since the onset of the Gaza war about 20 months ago.

Iraq, a rare ally of both Washington and Tehran, is striving to avoid upsetting its fragile stability while focusing on rebuilding after years of conflict.