Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said Thursday that Turkey and Qatar were key to implementing U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan in Gaza.
The unequivocal remarks come amid uncertainty over the future of a brittle ceasefire as Hamas has failed to hand over most of the bodies of the dead Israeli hostages, and has killed scores of Gazan civilians and rivals in violent public acts of revenge over the past week.
“Turkey and Qatar now hold in their hands the key to whether peace in Gaza can truly take root,” Haskel told JNS. “In the end, they will be the ones who determine whether we progress or not to the second stage of the peace plan.”
She noted that the Hamas leadership abroad was being hosted in both Turkey and Qatar, where they have their bank accounts, giving the two countries a unique ability to pressure the Gaza-based terror group.
Israel’s second-highest diplomat noted that despite the odds, there was “international consensus” to progress with the peace plan, which she said was possible through “pressure levers” being applied on Hamas.
The agreement stipulates the disarmament of Hamas and calls for the installation of an Arab-led international security in Gaza. Hamas has opposed both those moves, calling into question how the peace plan will be enacted and spelling more turbulence ahead.
Haskel opined that the recent internecine Palestinian killings highlighted the need to move to the next stage of the agreement. “We are not dealing with a rational or stable leadership but a terror organization whose goals are death and destruction,” she said.
Still, the Israeli deputy foreign minister, who was in Berlin on Thursday, said that the expansion of the landmark 2020 Abraham Accords, which saw Israel make peace with four Muslim nations, was contingent on moving ahead with the peace plan.
“We have a great opportunity now because the alliance of the moderates was empowered by the war against radical Islam, but the countries want certainty,” she said.
Haskel noted that the UAE, which was the first of the four countries to make peace with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, funded nearly half of all the aid to Gaza over the two years of war since Oct. 7, 2023.
During her visit to Germany, Haskel called for educational reform in Gaza at an Elnet conference marking five years since the signing of the Abraham Accords, which was attended by representatives of the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt.
“A new education system must emerge in Gaza, one that teaches truth, not hate; practical reality, not a pan-Arabist utopia built on resentment, that makes it clear and unequivocal: the Jewish people are not going anywhere,” Haskel said in her address.
“The vast majority of Palestinians must first accept Israel’s right to exist, not as a concession, but as a fact of life and of history,” she added.
