Hamas says its negotiators have opened a new round of talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza, hours after Israel launched a major offensive.
Taher al-Nounou, an adviser to the head of Hamas, told the BBC a new round of negotiations had officially begun in Doha on Saturday.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, said Hamas negotiators were returning to indirect talks in Qatar to seek a deal on the hostages.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month said that Israel was preparing an “intense entry into Gaza” to capture and hold territory.
At least 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Hours after Israel launched a massive offensive, Hamas claims its negotiators have begun a new round of negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the war in Gaza.
The BBC was informed by Hamas chief advisor Taher al-Nounou that fresh talks had formally started in Doha on Saturday. Both sides did not have any preconditions, and every topic was up for debate.
In order to reach an agreement regarding the hostages, Israel Katz, the country’s defense minister, announced that Hamas negotiators were going back to indirect negotiations in Qatar.
Katz described the action as a “break from the stubborn stance they had adopted up until that point.”.
The announcement followed Israel’s military’s announcement on its Hebrew X account that troops had been called up for “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” in order to liberate hostages and capture “strategic areas” of Gaza.
Similar posts on its English-language X account claimed that it had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in a 24-hour period and that it would continue to operate “until Hamas is no longer a threat and all our hostages are home.”.
The IDF would seize and control territory, relocate civilians south of the Strip, attack Hamas, and stop it from seizing aid supplies, according to the Times of Israel, which used the phrase “Gideon’s Chariots” to allude to a biblical warrior.
In the days ahead, as the operation intensifies, thousands of Israeli soldiers and reservists are anticipated to enter Gaza.
In March, a two-month ceasefire broke down, and Israel imposed an aid blockade on the Strip. According to US President Donald Trump, “a lot of people were starving” in Gaza on Friday.
About 250 people have been killed by Israeli attacks since Thursday, according to rescuers from Gaza’s primary emergency service, Hamas-run civil defense.
At least 146 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited local health authorities. Many more have been injured.
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“My kids go to bed hungry,” Gazans express to the BBC.
As many people have already been repeatedly displaced during the conflict, aid workers say it is nearly impossible to implement the order for residents in many areas of northern and central Gaza to leave their homes or places of shelter.
Israel was planning an “intense entry into Gaza” to seize and hold territory, according to statements made earlier this month by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
His administration stated that it wouldn’t start until after Trump’s Middle East tour was over. On Friday, the US president left the area.
Israel may have violated international law with its recent escalation, according to UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk.
There seems to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is against international law and amounts to ethnic cleansing, he said, citing the recent bombings, the forced relocation of people under threat of more intense attacks, the deliberate destruction of entire neighborhoods, and the refusal of humanitarian aid.
The US is “troubled” by the situation, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Victoria Rose, a British reconstructive surgeon who works at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said her staff had lost a “considerable amount of weight” and that her team was “exhausted” on the BBC World Service’s Today program.
“The children are really thin,” she remarked. Many children in our care have lost their teeth.
Many of them have fairly severe burn injuries, and at this stage of malnourishment, their ability to heal is greatly diminished and they are far more vulnerable to infection. “.
Famine is a “critical risk” for Gaza’s population, according to a UN-backed assessment released on Monday.
Claims that Gaza is experiencing a food shortage have been denied by the Israeli government on several occasions.
After the cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people and the capture of 251 others, Israel began a military campaign to destroy the organization. They still have 58 hostages in Hamas.
The health ministry of Gaza, which is run by Hamas, reports that at least 53,000 people have died there since then.
