"The main goal of the of the office in Qatar is to be a channel of communication between the concerned parties," noted Al-Ansari.

"This channel has contributed to achieving a ceasefire in previous stages, and contributed to maintaining calm in the Strip in the lead to exchanging hostages and detainees of women and children in November of last year, stressing in this context the need to obtain information from its official sources," he added.

On Friday, citing "anonymous diplomatic sources," Israeli Channel 13 reported that Qatar was withdrawing from its role in mediating talks between Israel and Hamas to end the Gaza war and told the Palestinian group its office in Doha was "no longer" serving its purpose.

Reuters on Friday cited a Biden administration official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that Washington had told Doha that Hamas' presence was no longer acceptable.

Qatar, with the United States and Egypt, has been engaged in months of fruitless negotiations for a ceasefire/captives and prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas to end the Israeli war on Gaza that killed and wounded more than 150,000 Palestinians in the strip.

However, the Israeli government, led by PM Menjamin Netanyahu, has refused on multiple occasions to sign on to various Gaza ceasefire proposals compiled by the mediators, opting to forge ahead with its 13-month-old genocidal campaign  in the strip.

Earlier on Saturday, speaking in Doha, a senior Hamas officila told AFP: "We have nothing to confirm or deny regarding what was published by an unidentified diplomatic source, and we have not received any request to leave Qatar."

Ready to resume mediation
 

"The State of Qatar notified the parties 10 days ago during the last attempts to reach an agreement, that it would stall its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel if an agreement was not reached in that round," Al-Ansari said.

"Qatar will resume those efforts with its partners when the parties show their willingness and seriousness to end the brutal war and the ongoing suffering of civilians caused by catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Strip". 

Al-Ansari condemned the attempts by some parties to evade signing a ceasefire agreement to prolong the war for political gains - in a clear reference to Israeli PM Netanyahu's maneuvres and stalling tactics.

"Qatar will not accept that mediation be a reason for blackmailing it, as we have witnessed manipulation since the collapse of the first pause and the women and children exchange deal, especially in retreating from obligations agreed upon through mediation, and exploiting the continuation of negotiations to justify the continuation of the war to serve narrow political purposes."

Al-Ansari reiterated "Qatar's firm commitment to supporting the brotherly Palestinian people until they obtain all their rights, foremost of which is their independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital," and stressed "the centrality of the Palestinian issue to the State of Qatar." he said.