Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani indicated on Wednesday that Hamas violated the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza on Tuesday when it attacked IDF soldiers and killed a reservist. Al-Thani stopped short of specifically blaming Hamas, referring instead to “the Palestinian party.”

The deadly incident in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip was “very disappointing and frustrating” for Qatar, said al-Thani, who was giving an onstage interview at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

On Tuesday afternoon, a cell of Palestinian terror operatives targeted troops with sniper fire in Rafah’s Jenina neighborhood, killing Master Sgt. (res.) Yona Efraim Feldbaum, before following up a short while later by firing several RPGs at IDF forces.

The military responded by striking several targets in the area that posed a threat to troops, including buildings and tunnel shafts. The Israeli Air Force then conducted a wave of strikes across the Gaza Strip between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, with Hamas health authorities — who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants — reporting at least 104 dead, including dozens of women and children, before Israel announced that it would resume observing the ceasefire.

“What happened yesterday was a violation,” al-Thani said, acknowledging that mediators had expected Israel to respond after one of its soldiers was killed.

Pressed on who specifically was responsible for Tuesday’s “violation,” al-Thani responded, “What happened yesterday — the attack on the Israeli soldiers — that’s basically a violation by the Palestinian party.

“Hamas has put [out] a statement that they are not in communication with this group [that carried out the attack],” he said. “We don’t know yet [if that’s true].”

Clarifying further, the Qatari premier said that Hamas had offered “conflicting statements” regarding the attack on Israeli troops, with one claim being that the gunmen responsible for it “lost communication”........

© The Times of Israel