A new round of negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal between Hamas and Israel began in Qatar on Saturday after the Israeli military launched its new expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to both Israeli and Hamas officials.
Hamas confirmed a new round of talks was underway. Terror group official Taher al-Nono told Reuters that both sides were discussing all issues without “preconditions.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz argued that it was the start of the new campaign that had brought Hamas to the table.
Israeli and Hamas delegations had traveled to Qatar earlier in the week after the terror group released American-Israeli hostage soldier Edan Alexander, as part of an agreement with Washington that did not involve Israel and ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region.
However, according to reports, those talks made little progress, with both sides entrenched in their usual positions: Israel demanding a temporary truce only so long as Hamas is undefeated, and the terror organization insisting on an end to the war.
On Saturday morning, Katz said in a statement: “With the launch of Operation Gideon’s Chariots in Gaza, led with great force by IDF command, the Hamas delegation in Doha announced a return to negotiations on a hostage deal, contrary to the intransigent stance they had taken up until that moment.”
He added, “The heroism of IDF soldiers, the unity of the people, and the determination of the political leadership increase the chances of bringing back the hostages.”
Hamas’s Nono said the group was “keen to exert all the effort needed” to help mediators make the negotiations a success, adding there was “no certain offer on the table.”
The Qatari al-Araby al-Jadeed news site cited an unnamed senior Hamas source as saying negotiators in Doha were discussing a two-month truce deal during which talks would be held on ending the war. According to the source, there would be clear involvement from Washington to ensure that the agreement would be implemented.
An Israeli official told Channel 12 that the talks in Doha were “serious,” but that “Hamas needs to understand they must agree to the Witkoff framework, and if not, the ground offensive will begin soon” in Gaza.
In March, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff proposed a temporary ceasefire of some 40 days in exchange for the release of about half of the remaining living hostages, and Israel has hoped to advance such an agreement.
Hamas has so far rejected partial deals, instead insisting on an agreement that would permanently end the war.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF. There are grave concerns for the well-being of three others, Israeli officials have said.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday called on Hamas to abandon power in Gaza and, along with other terror groups, to hand over weapons to the PA, in an address at an Arab League summit in Baghdad.
As quoted by the Iraqi News Agency, Abbas said, “The Palestinian cause is facing existential dangers and the genocidal crimes it is facing today in Gaza are part of a colonialist project that undermines the project of an independent Palestinian state.”
“The Palestinian vision supports the adoption of an Arab plan that supports stopping Zionist attacks and achieving peace in the region,” he said. “The Palestinian Authority is proceeding with a comprehensive reform process that includes all its institutions.”
Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from Abbas’s Western-backed PA in 2007, and reconciliation attempts between the rivals have repeatedly failed.
Hamas has said it is prepared to cede control of the Strip and agree to a year-long truce with Israel that includes security guarantees. However, it has long refused demands that it permanently disarm.
The IDF announced late Friday that it had launched the first stages of a previously announced major offensive in the Gaza Strip, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots,” that will seek to “seize strategic areas” of the Strip. Hamas-run authorities reported dozens killed in heavy Israeli airstrikes overnight and on Saturday morning.
Israel had warned Hamas that it would launch the campaign if no headway were made in negotiations by the time Trump ended his regional trip.
In a statement, the military said it had “launched extensive attacks and mobilized forces… to achieve all the goals of the war in Gaza, including the release of the hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”
Palestinian media reported on Saturday that IDF ground troops had advanced overnight toward central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah. According to the reports, heavy artillery fire and airstrikes were carried out in the eastern Deir al-Balah area as the forces advanced.
Deir al-Balah is one of the few areas of the Strip into which Israel has not sent ground troops since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza. Ground forces have previously operated on the outskirts of the town, but not deep inside it.
According to Israeli officials, the operation would see the IDF “conquer” Gaza and retain the territory, attack Hamas, prevent the terror group from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies, and move Palestinians from Gaza’s north to its south.
More than 300 Gazans have been killed in Israeli strikes since Thursday, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the war so far.
The tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 terrorists inside the country during the October 7 onslaught, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.