launched at israel from who fees in yemen, from syria also and from iraq, so this has already been actually dangerous a few months, there was so much effort to try to keep things have a calibrated reaction after israel insisted that for the purposes of its own deterrence in the region, it had to respond that very dramatic and unprecedented attack by iran last weekend. . ., unprecedented attack by iran last weekend. ., ,, , ., ., unprecedented attack by iran last weekend. . ~ , ., ., , weekend. thank you, that is the bbc s yolande weekend. thank you, that is the bbc s yolande knell weekend. thank you, that is the bbc s yolande knell in - weekend. thank you, that is the i bbc s yolande knell in jerusalem. we bbc s yolande knell injerusalem. we will have more reports and analysis from our correspondent in the region. let s get some analysis now from meehran kamrava, professor of government at georgetown university in qatar. he s also head of the iranian studies unit at the arab cente
palestinians have died. and qatar is in no position right now to go to hamas and say, why don t you release a few more israeli hostages, but at the same time, continue to get killed, have palestinians get killed? so it doesn t appear as if qatar is also in a position to negotiate and change things on the ground. just to go back to the civilian casualties that you mentioned there, antony blinken has said far too many palestinians have been killed, especially children. is there any sign that israel might be starting to shift towards different tactics on the ground or not, in your view? well, over the last few days, we have heard reports that the israelis have pulled out some of their troops, largely because of israeli casualties and the casualties that the israeli army has suffered. so it appears as if israel needs to engage in a different set of tactics on the ground in order to be able to pursue its objectives. also, we need to keep in mind that
as things get worse in gaza, it could expand into a bigger regional conflict and that is one thing where people in the region are fearful. you mention the hostages there and antony blinken is in qatar which is one of the countries that helped release some of the hostages and a humanitarian truce early on in the conflict. is there any sense of those negotiations are continuing? i think things have got work on the hostage run for one reason, and that is the assassination, presumably by israel of the number two in hamas in the lebanese capital beirut at the start of the week on tuesday and according to sources from antony blinken who have been mediating between hamas israel and egypt, the chances of hostages being released after what happened in beirut have significantly diminished and that will of course, is bad news for the
but the iranians have sought de escalation of the conflict, but at the same time, they ve tried to maintain some sort of pressure on both israel and the united states through their proxies. i doubt if any of the nearby countries, regional states, would be able to pressure iran to either rein in its proxies or change course at this point. tell us a little bit about qatar, where you are. they had quite a big role in establishing the negotiations that led to a truce and some hostage releases. what state of play is there on negotiations at the moment, as far as you re aware? well, right now, qatar also doesn t have an awful lot of leverage over hamas because the course of the war has changed. well, in return for the villa we ve given you here and the agreement to maintain your political leadership, you need to release some hostages, but as of today, more than 20,000