Gaza risks entering a deadly limbo of 'no war, no peace', top diplomat warns

Gaza is sliding towards a deadly limbo in which a ceasefire is nominally in place but the killing continues, a senior Qatari diplomat has warned.

- Emma Graham-Harrison

He called for rapid progress in setting up the international security force and administration to pave the way for full Israeli withdrawal.

"We don't want to reach a situation of no war, no peace," said Majed al-Ansari, an adviser to Qatar's prime minister.

On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes killed more than 100 Palestinians, at least 66 of them women and children, in the deadliest day since Donald Trump declared the war was over. Israel said the bombings were in response to an attack in Rafah that killed a soldier carrying out demolitions.

The ceasefire deal called for an international force to secure Gaza, reducing the risk of violence flaring in the short term and paving the way for the demilitarisation of Hamas and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces, which still occupy more than half of the territory.

Getting the international force in place fast, along with a new Palestinian administration, was critical for the fragile pause to become a more lasting peace, Ansari, a spokesperson for Qatar's foreign ministry, said.

"There is a need for the international community to go in, assess the damage, start thinking about reconstruction, working on reconstruction, and to formally keep the peace. This is what will significantly shift the whole process from war to the day after," he added.