The negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip “have not been very promising in recent days,” Qatar’s prime minister admitted today from Munich.

“We always remain optimistic. We will keep pushing. We will do our best to get closer” to an agreement, emphasized MAhmed bin Abdelrahman Al-Thaniwhose country has been mediating in recent months, along with the US and Egypt, to end the fighting.

He said he could not go into the details of the negotiations, but as with previous agreements there were two elements, the humanitarian conditions in Gaza Strip and the number of Palestinians who will be released in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hamas.

“I think in this agreement we are talking about a larger scale and we still see some difficulties in the humanitarian part of these negotiations,” he said.

He added that he believed that if negotiations on the humanitarian framework of any deal progressed, then the barrier on the number of people to be released by either side would eventually be lifted.