A senior Hamas official has said that the group was no longer interested in truce talks with Israel and urged the international community to halt Israel’s “hunger war” against Gaza.
“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,” Basem Naim said.
He said the world must pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the “crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings” in Gaza.
The comments by Mr Naim, a Hamas political bureau member and former Gaza health minister, come a day after Israel’s military said expanded operations in Gaza would include displacing “most” of its residents.
Yesterday, Israel’s security cabinet approved the military’s plan for expanded operations, which an Israeli official said would entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories”.
Nearly all of the territory’s residents inhabitants have been displaced, often multiple times, since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.
Gaza has been under total Israeli blockade since 2 March and faces a severe humanitarian crisis.
Israel’s military resumed its offensive on Gaza on 18 March, ending a two-month ceasefire.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called Israel’s plan for a Gaza offensive “unacceptable”, and said its government was “in violation of humanitarian law”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video message that the operation in Gaza would be “intensive” and would see more Palestinians in Gaza moved “for their own safety”.
He said Israeli troops would not follow previous tactics based on short raids by forces based outside Gaza.
“The intention is the opposite,” he said, echoing comments from other Israeli officials who have said Israel would hold on to the ground it has seized.
An Israeli defence official said the operation would not be launched before US President Donald Trump concludes his visit next week to the Middle East.
