Qatar 'continuing' efforts to renew Gaza ceasefire despite Israeli attacks

Mediation efforts have been continuing to secure a new Gaza ceasefire despite ongoing Israeli bombardment that is "narrowing the window" for a successful outcome, Qatar's prime minister said.

"Our efforts as the state of Qatar along with our partners are continuing. We are not going to give up," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told the Doha Forum on Sunday, more than two months into the war.

Qatar was a key mediator in negotiations that resulted in a seven-day truce, which saw Israeli hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and humanitarian aid.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the Palestinian group killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages, according to Israeli figures, in an unprecedented attack on October 7.

The Israeli offensive has killed at least 17,700 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

"We are going to continue, we are committed to have hostages released, but we are also committed to stop the war," the Qatari premier said.

But, he added, "We are not seeing the same willingness from both parties" and "the continuation of the bombardment is just narrowing this window for us".

UN chief pledges to 'not give up'

Addressing the Doha Forum earlier, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the Security Council was "paralysed by geostrategic divisions" that were undermining solutions to the conflict.

The body's "authority and credibility were severely undermined" by its delayed response to the war, he said two days after a United States veto prevented a resolution calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

"I reiterated my appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared," he told the forum. "Regrettably, the Security Council failed to do it."

"I can promise, I will not give up."

Guterres had convened an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after two months of fighting in Gaza.

He deployed the rarely used Article 99 of the United Nations Charter that allows the secretary-general to bring to the council's attention "any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security".

The rule had not been invoked by a UN chief in decades.