Israel and Palestinian militant organization Hamas are returning to negotiation toward ceasefire and return of hostages, even as deadly attacks continue to cause death and destruction in Gaza, officials said.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said Hamas negotiators were returning to indirect talks in Qatar to seek a deal on the hostages.
A BBC report, citing Taher al-Nounou, an adviser to the head of Hamas, said a new round of negotiations was beginning in Doha on Saturday.
According to reports there were no preconditions from either side, and that all issues were on the table for discussion.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said on its Hebrew X account that troops had been mobilized for “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” to seize “strategic areas” of Gaza and free the remaining hostages.
A report in The Times of Israel said that the Israeli operation “Gideon’s Chariots” aims at the IDF taking and controlling the territory, moving civilians to the south of the Strip, attacking Hamas as well as preventing Hamas — which the U.S. has declared a terrorist organization – from taking control of aid supplies.
Gaza strip is a scene of humanitarian crisis, as per UN reports, in the midst of continuing Israeli aid blockade since March, when a two-month ceasefire broke down.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that “a lot of people were starving” in Gaza, while his secretary of foreign affairs Marco Rubio said this week that Washington is not insensitive to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Washington, along with Egypt and Qatar, earlier brokered two ceasefire agreements between Israel and Hamas that led to exchange of prisoners and pauses in hostile actions.
Rescuers from the Hamas-run civil defense, Gaza’s main emergency service, said Israeli attacks have killed over 300 people since Thursday, reports said.
Reports say residents in many parts of northern and central Gaza have been told to leave their homes or places of shelter – an order aid workers say is almost impossible because many have already been repeatedly made homeless during the war.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month said that Israel was preparing an “intense entry into Gaza” to capture and hold territory.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “alarmed” by Israel’s latest offensive in Gaza.
“I reject the repeated displacement of the population – along with any question of forced displacement outside of Gaza,” he said on X.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk echoed the condemnation, adding that Israel’s operation is “tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”
The Gaza war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Since then Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas on the beseiged Gaza strip.
Israeli officials say about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 people were taken hostage.
In Gaza, according to officials associated with Hamas-administered Health Ministry, more than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war including a large number of women and children.
Reports in the international media suggest that Hamas still holds 58 hostages.
Meanwhile, a group of seven European nations has called for an end to Israel’s military operations and aid blockade of Gaza.
In a joint statement, the leaders of Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovenia, Spain and Norway said they “will not be silent in front of the man-made humanitarian catastrophe that is taking place before our eyes in Gaza.”
The Council of Europe, a body that works to safeguard human rights and democracy, noted that Gaza was suffering from a “deliberate starvation.
Israeli officials have previously said their aid blockade was meant to pressurize Hamas into releasing the remaining hostages. Israeli officials also say they attack Hamas but it hides in populated areas, putting civilians at risk.
