Israel advanced its ground forces in Gaza as part of a long-threatened all-out offensive against Hamas, and said the new action prompted the group to resume mediated negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release.
Hamas denied the assertion — issued, unusually, during the Jewish Sabbath by Israel’s defense minister. It said said there were ongoing talks in Qatar “without preconditions.”
Hamas had on Thursday appeared to link any new talks on Israel lifting its devastating blockade on the entry of food and other aid to the Palestinian territory. Israel blocked aid into Gaza in March, and the United Nations says the 2 million-strong population there faces famine.
The freeing by Hamas this week of Israeli American hostage Edan Alexander, at the behest of Donald Trump as the U.S. president embarked on a Gulf visit, stirred new hopes of a deal to wind down the 19-month-old war, which began in Gaza and has ignited other fronts, including Lebanon.
Israel dispatched negotiators to Doha while making clear that its forces were poised to plunge deeper into the Gaza Strip on a mission to rout Hamas and recover the remaining 48 hostages by force.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said that as ground forces fan out, and after a day of intensified air strikes, the sweep dubbed “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” was underway. Israeli officials have previously said the new push would entail the total conquest of the Gaza Strip — which is currently 30% occupied — over three months.
Following the escalation, Hamas notified Qatari mediators that it’s reengaging in the hostage talks, “parting from the intransigent position it had taken heretofore,” Katz said in a statement. He added that this wouldn’t entail Israel easing the aid blockade.
But Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi told Bloomberg that “negotiations have in fact been ongoing and have not stopped in recent days. The current round is taking place without preconditions and is open to all issues.”
Israel, which went to war after Hamas killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 in the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, has so far entered short-term truces during which it released hundreds of jailed Palestinian militants in return for scores of hostages. It refuses to end the war until Hamas, an Iran-backed group on terrorism blacklists in the West, is removed from Palestinian governance and disarmed.
Hamas has signaled willingness to cede some power, but not its arsenal. That’s raised doubts about the possibility of reaching another truce, even as the Palestinian death toll from the war has passed 53,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilian and combatant casualties. Israel has lost more than 400 troops in Gaza combat.
