Middle East leaders have few answers for ‘day after’ Gaza war

Doha – Middle East leaders gathered in Qatar sought ideas for what happens after the Gaza war, but remained firmly opposed to putting their own troops or international forces into the ravaged territory.

The Palestinian question is extremely delicate for leaders in the Arab world, where the war has sparked massive protests in several countries. 

At the annual Doha Forum that ended Monday, Qatar reiterated that no Arab country would send in forces to stabilise the situation after the guns of Israel and Hamas fall silent.

“No one from the region will accept… to put boots on the ground (following after) an Israeli tank. This is unacceptable,” said Qatari premier Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. 

But he also opposed any international force in Gaza under current conditions.

“We shouldn’t always talk about the Palestinians as if they need some guardian,” he said.

The Palestinians were represented by the Palestinian Authority, which has power in the Israeli-occupied West Bank territory, but not Gaza, which is in the hands of Hamas militants. 

Despite their rivalry, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Hamas could not be eradicated. 

They are “an integral part of the Palestinian political mosaic,” he told the forum.

Yet, eradication is precisely what Israel is seeking with its war — in retaliation for Hamas’s unprecedented attack of October 7 which killed 1,200 people and saw some 240 hostages taken back to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.

The ensuing Israeli offensive has claimed at least 18,200 lives, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. 

– ‘Heart of all conflicts’ –

Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh warned that failure to deal with “the day after” the war would mean “uglier scenes in a year or two”. 

He hoped the war would act as a “wake-up call”, especially as the conflict threatens a wider regional conflagration. 

The war has encouraged groups linked to Iran, which backs Hamas, to launch attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, while Israel is engaged in near-daily cross-border clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon. 

The Israel-Palestinian question was “at the centre and the heart of all conflicts in the region,” said Thani.

“What’s coming out of Gaza every day is not just affecting those forces in Lebanon or Yemen. It also affects an entire generation that might be radicalised because of these images,” he added. 

But concrete policies were lacking at the forum, which did not include high-level representatives from key regional players Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Egypt. 

The United States, Israel’s key diplomatic and military ally, has previously indicated the Palestinian Authority could govern both Gaza and the West Bank in the aftermath of hostilities.

But the Palestinians say a much more fundamental response is needed, one that takes seriously “an independent, sovereign, viable state of Palestine on all the Palestinian territories” in Shtayyeh’s words.

Qatar, which hosts the Hamas leadership, said it is still working on a fresh truce like the one last month that saw a one-week break in fighting and scores of Israeli hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian aid. 

But Thani warned that Israel’s relentless bombardment in Gaza was “narrowing this window” for a ceasefire.

“There is a collective responsibility on all of us to stop the killing, to go back to the table to find a lasting solution,” he said.