Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke with the United Kingdom’s newly-appointed Prime Minister on Monday.
Qatar and the United Kingdom discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip as the Gulf state continues to mediate between Israel and Hamas in hopes of reaching a ceasefire and captives release deal.
The discussions took place on Monday in a phone call between Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, and the United Kingdom’s newly-appointed Foreign Secretary, David Lammy.
“They also discussed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as the latest developments in the joint mediation efforts to end the war on the Strip, in addition to several topics of common interest,” the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement.
Both sides also tapped into “cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to support and develop them.” Sheikh Mohammed also congratulated Lammy on his appointment as the UK’s foreign secretary on July 5.
The phone call took place amid ongoing efforts by the Gulf state, alongside Egypt and the United States, to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a captives release deal.
It also came months after Qatar and the UK announced joint efforts to provide Palestinians evacuated from Gaza to Doha with comprehensive care in May.
Under the joint initiative, Doha and London agreed to train those providing evacuees with health, psychological and social care as part of wider efforts to assist Palestinians from Gaza.
The Palestinians in Doha were evacuated under an initiative by Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to sponsor 3,000 orphans and treat 1,500 injured Palestinians from the Strip.
Qatar has since evacuated more than 500 wounded people, along with over 800 of their companions and 700 others with special cases. The evacuations took place before Israel invaded and destroyed the Gaza-Egypt Rafah Crossing on May 6.
In February, Qatar and the UK launched a co-funding initiative for international development cooperation and humanitarian response. Both countries allocated $50 million to “address the most pressing humanitarian and development challenges.”
This followed the first Qatar-UK joint humanitarian aid shipment to Gaza in January under a “ framework of humanitarian and development cooperation.”
As of Monday, Israel has killed more than 39,000 people in Gaza and injured 89,818 others.
The Israeli war also displaced at least 1.9 million people out of the Gaza Strip’s population of 2.1 million – down from the United Nations’ initial estimate of 2.3 million, following the deaths and exodus of people fleeing for safety.
