Gaza truce talks useless after Israel intensifies attacks: Senior Hamas official

A senior Hamas official said Tuesday the group was no longer interested in truce talks with Israel and urged the international community to halt Israel’s “hunger war” against Gaza.

“There is no sense in engaging in talks or considering new ceasefire proposals as long as the hunger war and extermination war continue in the Gaza Strip,” Basem Naim said.

He said the world must pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the “crimes of hunger, thirst, and killings” in Gaza.

The comments by Naim, a Hamas political bureau member and former Gaza health minister, come a day after Israel’s military said expanded operations in Gaza would include displacing “most” of its residents.

On Monday Israel’s security cabinet approved the military’s plan for expanded operations, which an Israeli official said would entail “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of the territories”.

Nearly all of the territory’s residents inhabitants have been displaced, often multiple times, since the start of the war.

Gaza has been under total Israeli blockade since March 2 and faces a severe humanitarian crisis.

Israel’s military resumed its offensive on the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month truce.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in a radio interview on Tuesday called Israel’s plan for a Gaza offensive “unacceptable”, and said its government was “in violation of humanitarian law”.