Qatar’s prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani on Saturday said the Gaza ceasefire has reached a “critical moment” as its first phase, which took effect on October 10, winds down. 

“What we have just done is a pause,” he told the Doha Forum, an international conference in the Qatari capital. “We cannot consider it a ceasefire yet. A ceasefire cannot be completed unless there is a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, there is stability back in Gaza, people can go in and out, which is not the case today,” he said.