Sheikh Mohammed says the Palestinians in Gaza – not any other country – should dictate how the region is governed.
The Prime Minister of Qatar has said that he hopes that the Palestinian Authority (PA) will return to work in Gaza after the end of the Israeli war.
Israel launched a war in Gaza on October 7, 2023 after Hamas led an offensive in southern Israel that killed at least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to Al Jazeera citing Israeli figures.
Israel's brutal 15-month offensive on Gaza has killed more than 47,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials, and destroyed many civilian weapons. Israel has drastically cut aid to the region, prompting warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani was speaking at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday, two days after a Qatar-backed ceasefire went into effect in Gaza.
The prime minister warned that the Palestinians in Gaza – not any other country – should dictate how the group will be governed.
“We hope to see the PA return to Gaza. We hope to see a government that will really solve the problems of the people there. And there is a long way to go with Gaza and destruction,” he said.
'Time wasted'
Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the minister of foreign affairs in Qatar, said that his country is sorry for the time that was wasted in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
“Looking back and reflecting on what we've learned over the past few days, we've felt sorry for the entire time … being thrown out of these negotiations,” he said.
“We have seen that the plan we agreed on in December was implemented a few days ago, and … .
He added that this includes “things that are meaningless compared to the lives of the people who lost”.
How Gaza will be governed after the war is not directly addressed in the agreement between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian group that ran Gaza until the war.
The ceasefire agreement between the parties was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United States and includes cooperation, the exchange of Israeli prisoners for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, and an increase in humanitarian aid.
Israel has denied any responsibility for controlling Hamas, but has also opposed the Palestinian Authority, an organization established under the Oslo peace accords three decades ago that has limited control over parts of the West Bank.
The PA, controlled by the Fatah group created by former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, is facing opposition from the opposition group Hamas, which won elections and drove the PA out of Gaza in 2007 after a brief war.