A Hamas official said Tuesday that the group no longer had an interest in a ceasefire talk with Israel and urged the international community to stop Israel’s “hung war.”
“As long as the hunger and extinction wars continue in the Gaza Strip, there is no point in engaging in consultations or considering new ceasefire proposals,” Basem Naim told AFP.
He said the world must put pressure on Israeli government Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end Gaza’s “cry of hunger, thirst and murder.”
Comment from Naim, a Hamas Politburo member and former Gaza Health Minister, came the day after Israeli military said the expansion of operations in Gaza would involve replacing “most” the population.
They came the day after Israel said the Security Minister had approved the military’s expanded operational plan. Israeli officials said it would involve “conquest of the Gaza Strip and preservation of territory.”
Since the start of the war began on October 7, 2023, almost all of the inhabitants of the territory have been evacuated many times.
Gaza has been under complete Israeli lockdown since March 2nd and is facing a serious humanitarian crisis.
Israeli forces resumed their attacks in the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce.
A UN spokesperson said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday: “The Israeli plan is “uneasy.”
Israel’s decision comes as hunger is once again looming as the UN and aid organizations repeatedly warn of humanitarian catastrophes on the ground.
On Monday, an Israeli official said, “A central element of the plan is the massive evacuation of the entire Gazan population from the combat zone to the region in southern Gaza.”
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Frenchman Jean Noel Barro said in a radio interview called Israel’s “unacceptable” Israeli plan to attack Gaza, the government “violates humanitarian law.”
For Palestinians, forced evacuation evokes memories of “Nakbah” or catastrophe – the massive displacement of the war that led to the creation of Israel in 1948.