GAZA CITY, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Hamas on Tuesday dismissed as pointless ceasefire talks with Israel, accusing it of waging a “hunger war” on Gaza, where famine looms, as the Israeli military prepared for a broader assault.
The comments from Hamas political bureau member Basem Naim followed Israel’s approval of a military plan involving the long-term “conquest of the Gaza Strip”, according to an Israeli official.
Nearly all of the Palestinian territory’s 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once during the war, sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. A two-month Israeli blockade since early March has worsened the humanitarian crisis.
“There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip,” senior Hamas official Naim told AFP.
The former Gaza health minister said the world must pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to end the “crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings”.
Qatar, a key mediator in the conflict, said that “our efforts remain ongoing” despite major obstacle to a ceasefire.
Israel’s military has said the expanded operations approved by the security cabinet on Sunday would include displacing “most” of Gaza’s population.
Before that phase begins, a senior Israeli security source has said that the timing of troop deployments allowed a “window of opportunity” for a possible hostage deal coinciding with US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East next week.
Israel’s military resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce that saw a surge in aid into the war-ravaged territory and the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Gaza’s civil defence agency said on Tuesday that six Palestinians including a young girl were killed in Israeli dawn attacks.
‘Dust and destruction’
Moaz Hamdan, who lost family members in a strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza, said he was awoken by “a very large explosion”.
The whole area was “covered in dust and destruction”, he said. “We were unable to rescue the wounded.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said at least 2,507 people had been killed since Israel resumed its campaign in mid-March, bringing the overall death toll from the war to 52,615.
Hamas’s 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Out of the 251 people abducted by militants that day, 58 are still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the Gaza Strip should be “entirely destroyed” and its inhabitants “leave in great numbers to third countries” after the war.
His comments came a day after United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq said that “Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state.”
For Palestinians, any forced displacement evokes memories of the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement in the war that led to Israel’s creation in 1948.
‘No aid’
The UN and aid organisations have repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, exacerbated by the total blockade since early March, heightening fears of famine.
The United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA accused Israel of trying to “weaponise” the flow of aid into Gaza.
“There’s no aid to distribute anymore because the aid operation has been strangled,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said.
Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin said the planned offensive approved by the cabinet would include “moving most of the population of the Gaza Strip… to protect them”.
Hundreds of Israelis demonstrated Monday outside parliament in Jerusalem to express their opposition to the government plan.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, urged leaders to “go the extra mile, make an extra effort, take the extra step, so that we can see our hostages home immediately.”
China said it opposed Israel’s military actions in Gaza and was “highly concerned” by the situation, urging all parties to “effectively implement the ceasefire agreement”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Paris “very strongly” condemns Israel’s planned offensive, calling it “unacceptable”, and adding that its government was “in violation of humanitarian law”.
