Israel and Hamas have engaged in a new round of talks to end the war in Gaza, after Israel’s military launched a major new offensive.
At least 300 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on the enclave since Thursday, including at least 50 people in bombardments overnight, rescuers in the territory say.
Taher al-Nounou, an adviser to the head of Hamas, told the BBC fresh negotiations were under way in Doha on Saturday that were being brokered by Qatari and US mediators.
He said there were no preconditions from either side, and all issues were on the table for discussion. Israel’s defence minister said they had started talks without agreeing to a ceasefire or lifting its blockade.
A senior Palestinian official familiar with negotiations told the BBC that talks were centred around some of the remaining hostages being released from Gaza in exchange for a period of calm.
The proposal had been put forward by US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff in recent weeks, but both sides had previously indicated obstacles to the plan.
The new round of talks comes after a week of intensifying bombardments and airstrikes. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday morning declared the start of a new offensive called “Operation Gideon’s Chariots”.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised a major military escalation that would occupy and control swathes of Gaza, force the Palestinian population to the south of the territory and “destroy” Hamas.
The IDF said on Saturday it wouldn’t stop operating “until Hamas is no longer a threat and all our hostages are home”. It said it had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.
The Times of Israel newspaper reported that “Gideon’s Chariots” – a reference to a biblical warrior – would also see the IDF prevent Hamas from taking control of aid supplies.
Thousands of Israeli troops, including soldiers and reservists, could enter Gaza as the operation ramps up in the coming days. Israeli tanks have also been seen at the border, Reuters news agency reported.
The intensified offensive has been condemned by the UN and some European leaders.
UN Secretary General António Guterres expressed alarm and said: “I reject the repeated displacement of the population – along with any question of forced displacement outside of Gaza.”
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk had also earlier said that Israel’s strikes, continued blockade of aid into Gaza and the forced relocation of people was “tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”
Following the new strikes, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani both called for a permanent ceasefire, while Germany’s Foreign Ministry said the new offensive risked “worsening the catastrophic humanitarian situation for Gaza’s population and the remaining hostages”.
The ramped-up military offensive comes as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens, prompting warnings from aid agencies about famine among the population.
Israel has blocked food and other supplies into the Strip for more than 10 weeks, following the breakdown of a two-month ceasefire in March. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that “a lot of people were starving” in Gaza.
The Israeli government has repeatedly rejected claims there is a food shortage in Gaza.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 5 May said Israel was preparing an “intense entry into Gaza” to capture and hold territory, but that it would not commence until US President Donald Trump completed his tour of the Middle East. Trump left the region on Friday.
On Friday, residents in many parts of northern and central Gaza were told to leave their homes or places of shelter – an order aid workers say is almost impossible because many have already been repeatedly made homeless during the war.
Strikes on Saturday hit towns in the north of Gaza, including Beit Lahiya and the Jabalia refugee camp, as well as in the southern city of Khan Younis, the Hamas-run health ministry and civil defence forces said.
Strikes this week have also hit near hospitals in the Strip.
Victoria Rose, a British reconstructive surgeon working at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that her team were “exhausted” and staff had lost a “considerable amount of weight”.
“The children are really thin,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of youngsters whose teeth have fallen out.
“A lot of them have quite significant burn injuries and with this level of malnutrition they’re so much more prone to infection and they’ve got so much less capacity to heal.”
Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. Hamas still holds 58 hostages.
At least 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, including more than 3,000 people since March.