Israel and Hamas have restarted ceasefire negotiations as Israel has launched a new attack in the Gaza Strip that has killed hundreds over the last three days. Israel has stated the operation is aimed at taking full control of the territory and removing the population in the north.
Taher Al-Nono, a media advisor for Hamas, told Reuters on Saturday that indirect talks resumed in Doha “without preconditions.” The talks are being mediated by Qatar and Egypt.
According to Al-Nono, Hamas’s goal is to end the blockade of Gaza, resume humanitarian aid, and secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
Israeli officials on Saturday praised the offensive in Gaza as the reason Hamas agreed to the negotiations. Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that Israel agreed to the talks without agreeing to a ceasefire or lifting the blockade—though over the last 18 months, indirect negotiations between the two parties have occurred without these conditions being met.
The talks come amid another claim from Hamas that a U.S. envoy promised the group Washington would pressure Israel to end the blockade of Gaza and that President Donald Trump would publicly call for a ceasefire in exchange for the release of American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, who was freed last week. Neither promise appears to have materialized.
While President Trump has recently expressed concern about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza—most recently stating on Friday that “a lot of people are starving” there—the Trump administration has not taken concrete steps to deliver aid.
Instead, reports surfaced on Friday that the administration is in discussions with the Libyan government to relocate one million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya. These were described as the most serious moves yet from Washington since Trump first announced in February his intent to remove Palestinians from Gaza.
Israel launched its offensive just as Trump was leaving the Middle East on Friday. Israeli media had previously reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to wait until Trump concluded his trip to the region before beginning the assault.