After Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in late July, Hamas officials told Qatari mediators they had new demands for the already deadlocked cease-fire talks, according to one Arab and one U.S. official.

The suggestion worried the Qatari prime minister, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who had spent months urging Hamas to compromise. With the support of his staff, the prime minister pushed back in meetings and calls with the Palestinian militant group, the officials said.

Hamas ultimately dropped the idea.

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Qatar Leverages Influence

As the talks for a cease-fire and the release of hostages have stalled and sputtered in recent months, Qatar has leveraged its influence with Hamas in an effort to break through myriad impasses, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials with knowledge of the negotiations, including ones from the region and from the United States. Most of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity so they could share details of the closed-door discussions.

Since the war began, Qatar, along with Egypt, has emerged as a crucial mediator between Israel and Hamas, hosting marathon discussions with Palestinian representatives in air-conditioned rooms in downtown Doha, the Qatari capital, and channeling messages from the Biden administration to Hamas. The Qataris have also been working with the Israelis, even though the countries do not have formal diplomatic relations.

The Qatari efforts have taken on more urgency as the negotiations appear at a standstill. Hamas and Israel remain far apart on a deal — and the goal posts seem to be constantly shifting.

Two U.S. officials said Hamas in recent days had added new demands for the release of hostages, asking for more Palestinian prisoners to be released in the opening phase of the agreement.

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The officials hope Qatar can persuade the militant group to again drop those demands and even reduce their request for a prisoner release following the killing of six hostages in the Gaza Strip.

It has been an ongoing effort to keep to talks on track. Qatar coaxed Hamas back to the negotiating table after Israel invaded Rafah, in southern Gaza, in May, four of the officials said. In the weeks that followed, it pressed Hamas to accept compromise language in the proposal.

More recently, Qatar has persuaded Hamas to stay involved in the talks, even as the militant group says it no longer wants to negotiate. While Hamas has publicly claimed it did not participate in the last two rounds of official talks in Cairo and Doha, it has privately engaged in less formal discussions with Qatari and Egyptian officials about those meetings and offered feedback on specific points, one Arab and two U.S. officials said.

“Qatar has been pressuring both sides to commit to a deal and to make difficult decisions within the negotiations to reach that deal,” said Majed al-Ansari, the Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson.

Qatar Remains Close to Hamas

Qatar has maintained close relations with Hamas for more than a decade and has hosted its exiled political leaders since 2012. The former Qatari leader, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, became the first and only head of state to visit Gaza under Hamas’ tenure. And Qatar has funded Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel, which has amplified Hamas’ messaging.

Throughout the war, the Persian Gulf emirate, which has a history of ties with Islamists, has tried to present itself as an international interlocutor capable of narrowing the gaps between the warring parties.

Qatar is also host to the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East. And the Gaza mediation efforts have given the country another opportunity to prove to the United States that it can be a strategic ally on important American foreign policy objectives.

“The Qataris always want to show they can be a good partner,” said Dana Shell Smith, the U.S. ambassador to Qatar from 2014-2017. “The cease-fire talks allow them to do just that.”

In June, Qatar intervened when it appeared once again that cease-first talks were stuck.

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Israel was insisting that a later stage of negotiations focus on multiple issues, while Hamas wanted to limit the scope to the swap of prisoners and captives.

Qatar Worked With US on Wording Choices

Working with the United States, Qatar presented three possible wording choices to Hamas as compromise language, according to Husam Badran, a senior Hamas official based in Qatar. Hamas representatives chose one of them, he added.

Hamas agreed that the later stage would focus in particular on the swap issue, wording that left the door open to potentially discussing some other issues.

“We did that because we’re keen on the issue of a cease-fire,” Badran said. “If there are some phrases that will make the negotiations easier and lead to the same result — the end of the war — we have no problem.”

Three of the officials familiar with the negotiations said Qatar had to push hard to get Hamas to agree to that compromise language.

Al-Ansari, the foreign ministry spokesperson, said Qatar had been exerting pressure by putting ideas on the table, setting deadlines for replies and reminding both sides of the gravity of the situation.

“Qatar is able to interact with Hamas in a serious and open way because of its long relationship with it and its support for Gaza,” said Tamer Qarmout, a professor of public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. “Hamas realizes that if the Qataris are pressuring them, they need to engage with them and respond positively.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Adam Rasgon and Julian E. Barnes/Diego Ibarra Sanchez
c. 2024 The New York Times Company