DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar and Egypt, which have acted as mediators in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, suggested on Wednesday that the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh could jeopardise efforts to secure a truce in Gaza.
"Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?" Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani wrote on X.
"Peace needs serious partners & a global stance against the disregard for human life."
Egypt's foreign ministry said in a statement that a "dangerous Israeli escalation policy" over the past two days had undermined efforts to broker an end to the fighting in Gaza.
"The coincidence of this regional escalation with the lack of progress in the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza increases the complexity of the situation and indicates the absence of Israeli political will to calm it down," the statement said.
"It undercuts the strenuous efforts made by Egypt and its partners to stop the war in the Gaza Strip and put an end to the human suffering of the Palestinian people," it added.
Qatar, Egypt and the United States have repeatedly tried to clinch a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 39,000 Palestinians since Hamas-led militants attacked Israel in October, killing 1,200 people.
A final deal to halt more than nine months of war has been complicated by changes sought by Israel, sources have told Reuters, and there was no sign of progress at the latest round of talks in Rome on Sunday.
Haniyeh, who mainly resided in Qatar, was assassinated in the early hours of the morning in Iran, raising fears of wider escalation in a Middle East shaken by Israel's war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.
Qatar condemned Haniyeh's assassination in the Iranian capital Tehran, saying it was a dangerous escalation.
His demise occurred less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander in Beirut whom it blamed for a deadly strike in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Haniyeh had not been directly involved in the day-to-day Gaza ceasefire negotiations and was not leading the talks. The senior Hamas figure who has been central throughout ceasefire and hostage release negotiations is Khalil Al-Hayya, an official briefed on the talks told Reuters previously.
Haniyeh's killing also came as Egypt's recently appointed Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty was in Qatar for talks on issues including the Gaza crisis. He discussed the assassination with Sheikh Mohammed, the Qatari foreign ministry said.
(Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Maha El Dahan, Andrew Mills, Nayera Abdallah and Ahmed Elimam; writing by Aidan Lewis; editing by Peter Graff and Mark Heinrich)
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