Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Wednesday talks on a Gaza ceasefire and a release of hostages are at a "delicate phase".
"We are trying as much as possible to address this stumbling block," he added, without giving further details.
Qatar's premier condemned what he described as the policy of "collective punishment" still followed by Israel in its war against the enclave's ruling Hamas and the latest escalation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The ceasefire discussions, mediated by Qatar and Egypt, are continuing as a humanitarian crisis devastates Palestinians in Gaza with severe shortages of food, medicine and hospital care.
The war was triggered when Hamas burst into southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages into the enclave, according to Israeli tallies. Israel has retaliated by pounding Gaza in an air and ground offensive which has killed almost 34,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.
At least 14 infants were killed in a fire at a state-run hospital in Pakistan's capital Islamabad on Wednesday, the prime minister said, with the health minister attributing the tragedy to a blast in the nursery ward.
The US military said on Tuesday four people have been killed in a strike on a vessel in the Caribbean, the latest in a series of attacks that Washington says target "narco-terrorists" but human rights groups condemn as extrajudicial killings.
A wall of mud and rock appeared to collapse into a river on the Himalayan border of Nepal and China's Tibet on Wednesday, triggering catastrophic flooding on the Nepali side that killed at least nine people and left hundreds of tourists missing.
Canada on Tuesday announced retaliatory tariffs on C$27.6 billion ($19.94 billion) worth of United States goods, matching dollar-for-dollar new duties imposed by Washington, and unveiled financial support for Canadian businesses and workers caught in the escalating trade war.
Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi has held talks in Iran with his Iranian counterpart, Dr. Seyed Abbas Araghchi, focusing on the resumption of safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, has affirmed the UAE's full support with Lebanon in a phone call with Lebanese Prime Minister Dr. Nawaf Salam.