Israel signalled, on Sunday, May 18, that it was open to striking a deal with Hamas that included "ending the fighting" in Gaza, where rescuers reported dozens killed a day after Israel stepped up its offensive. Israel's military has said the expansion of its campaign is aimed at "achieving all the war's objectives" including releasing hostages and "the defeat of Hamas." Yet, at the same time as the intensified operations got underway, Israel and Hamas entered indirect talks in Qatar that the Palestinian group said were aimed at ending the war.
In a statement on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that "even at this very moment, the negotiation team in Doha is working to exhaust every possibility for a deal – whether according to the Witkoff framework or as part of ending the fighting," referring to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff who has been involved in previous discussions. Such a deal, according to Netanyahu's statement, "would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip."
Senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu said, on Saturday, that the talks in Doha had kicked off "without any preconditions from either side."
Ever since a two-month ceasefire fell apart in March as Israel resumed its offensive, negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have failed to reach a breakthrough. Netanyahu has opposed ending the war without Hamas's total defeat, while Hamas has balked at the prospect of handing over its weapons.
On the ground, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday that 22 people were killed and at least 100 others wounded in a predawn attack on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip. Bassal said that the "series of violent Israeli air strikes" across Gaza overnight and in the early morning resulted in a total of "at least 33 martyrs, more than half of whom were children."
AFPTV footage showed people sifting through the wreckage of ruined shelters and rescuers treating the wounded. At a hospital in nearby Khan Yunis city, young men mourned over the shrouded bodies of loved ones laid out on the ground outside. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israel's intensified assault comes as international concern has mounted over worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza due to a blockade on aid imposed on March 2. UN chief Antonio Guterres, addressing an Arab League summit in Baghdad on Saturday, said he was "alarmed" at the escalation and called for "a permanent ceasefire, now." The summit's final statement urged the international community "to exert pressure to end the bloodshed." Israel has faced increasing pressure to lift its aid blockade, as UN agencies warn of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicine.
On Sunday, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza accused Israel of laying siege to the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, where it said "a state of panic and confusion is prevailing." The ministry later said Israel had cut off the arrival of patients and staff, "effectively forcing the hospital out of service." With "the shutdown of the Indonesian Hospital, all public hospitals in the North Gaza Governorate are now out of service," it said.