GAZA CITY: 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 after 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 said.
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 deal on captives 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 captives 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. 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 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.
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.
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. — Reuters
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