As Israel menaces Gaza’s last holdout of Rafah, apathy and resignation abound among negotiators

As anxieties mount over Israel’s threatened assault on the southernmost portion of the besieged Gaza Strip turning what was already a humanitarian crisis into a catastrophe, mediators have decried the lack of genuine commitment from any side, driven by self-serving political motives, to end the months-long war.

With Israeli forces awaiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s order to invade Rafah – the last city in the enclave untouched by ground troops – analysts say the recent flurry of diplomatic activity has largely been performative and failed to change the conflict’s trajectory.

“The situation is more complicated because of the internal political set-up on both sides,” Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Monday during a panel discussion on the Gaza conflict at a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Meanwhile, Qatar – one of the other major mediators in the conflict – said late last month through its foreign ministry spokesman that it was “appalled” at Israeli accusations Doha was using aid money to fund Hamas, the militant group whose October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked the wider war.

Doha has hosted Hamas’ political leadership for years at the behest of the United States, Israel’s main ally, to enable dialogue – in a similar vein to the hospitality it accorded the Afghan Taliban between 2013 and 2022, for similar reasons. Qatar also hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East.