CNN
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International mediators are making renewed efforts to reach a truce in Gaza after Israel launched a major new offensive in the territory, as the health ministry there reported more than 100 people killed in intense overnight strikes.
On Saturday, Hamas and Israel started indirect negotiations in the Qatari capital Doha to reach a ceasefire and hostages deal.
Senior Hamas official Taher Al-Nunu confirmed the resumption of talks in Doha, saying, “We have agreed to the current round of negotiations without preconditions,” according to Hamas-run al Aqsa TV.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel claimed Saturday that its new military operation had pushed Hamas to the negotiating table.
“With the launch of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ in Gaza… the Hamas delegation in Doha announced a return to negotiations over a hostage deal — in contrast to the refusal they had maintained until that moment,” Katz said.
But another possibility is that Hamas agreed to restart the talks following a visit from US President Donald Trump to the Middle East.
“Following discussions between Qatar and the US during President Trump’s visit to Doha, there is a renewed push by mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt to see if a new ceasefire agreement can be reached,” an official with knowledge of the talks told CNN.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been in close contact with the negotiation team in Doha as well as Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and the US’ Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in an effort to advance the deal, an Israeli official told CNN on Saturday.
He instructed his negotiating team to remain in Doha “to fully exhaust all efforts to secure the release of our hostages,” the official added.
Last week Netanyahu directed the Israeli negotiating team to head to Qatar for talks, but made clear that he is only committed to negotiating a proposal put forward by Witkoff, which would see the release of half the hostages in return for a temporary ceasefire. The proposal does not guarantee an end to the war.
Trump was in Doha Wednesday as part of a Middle East trip that skipped Israel. Trump said last week that he wanted an end to the “brutal war” in Gaza.
He also bypassed Israel twice this month in reaching bilateral deals with regional militant groups. Hamas released an Israeli-American hostage last week, and the Houthis agreed to stop firing at American ships in the Red Sea while pledging to continue fighting Israel.
On Wednesday, Trump denied that Israel had been sidelined. “This is good for Israel,” he said. But on Thursday, he said he wanted the US to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone.”
“I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good, make it a freedom zone, let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone,” Trump said in Qatar.
While in the Gulf, Trump also acknowledged that people are starving in Gaza and said the US would have the situation in Gaza “taken care of.”
Meanwhile, the UN and prominent aid organizations are raising the alarm over Israel’s new offensive in Gaza, who say civilians who are bearing the brunt of the assault.
The Israeli military said the operation is to “achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza, including the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”
More than 100 people have been killed in fresh airstrikes overnight, the Palestinian health ministry said Sunday, with entire families together.
In the Al-Mawasi area of southern Gaza, an infant, his two young siblings and their parents, who were all living in a displacement camp, were killed on Saturday, Dr. Munir al-Barsh, the health ministry’s director, told CNN.
As the bombardment continues and the death toll rises, Gaza’s healthcare system is being pushed further to the brink.
On Sunday, the ministry of health said that “all public hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip are now out of service.”
The UN is now warning that over 2.1 million people – the enclave’s entire population – is facing a risk of famine, following 19 months of conflict and mass displacement, now exacerbated by Israel’s 11-week blocking of aid.
On Friday, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement that the renewed bombing campaign was equivalent to ethnic cleansing.
“This latest barrage of bombs … and the denial of humanitarian assistance underline that there appears to be a push for a permanent demographic shift in Gaza that is in defiance of international law and is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Turk said.
Despite the resumption of talks in Qatar, Omar Qandil, whose brother, sister-in-law and 4-month-old niece were killed in an overnight airstrike in central Gaza, said he feels the world has turned a blind eye to their suffering.
“They were all asleep…all targeted in their bedroom,” he said.
“I don’t know what we (can) say anymore, we (have) spoke a lot. There is no one looking at us: not Arabs not Muslims, no one.”
CNN’s Eyad Kourdi, Abeer Salman and Eugenia Yosef contributed reporting.
