Hamas says open to talks as Israel keeps up Gaza strikes

An Israeli Apache flies over the Gaza border as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 19 March 2025
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Hamas says open to talks as Israel keeps up Gaza strikes

  • Hamas is open to talks on getting the ceasefire back on track but will not renegotiate the agreement that took effect on January 19
  • Negotiations have stalled over how to proceed with a ceasefire whose first phase expired in early March

GAZA CITY: Hamas said it remained open to negotiations while calling for pressure on Israel Wednesday to implement a Gaza truce after its deadliest bombing since the fragile ceasefire began in January.
Israel carried out fresh air strikes on Gaza on Wednesday, killing 13 people according to the territory’s civil defense agency, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday’s raids were “only the beginning.”
The United Nations and countries around the world condemned the high civilian death toll in the renewed strikes, which have killed more than 400 people, according to Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Hamas is open to talks on getting the ceasefire back on track but will not renegotiate the agreement that took effect on January 19, an official from the militant group said.
“Hamas has not closed the door on negotiations but we insist there is no need for new agreements,” Taher Al-Nunu told AFP.
“We have no conditions, but we demand that the occupation be compelled to immediately halt its aggression and war of extermination, and begin the second phase of negotiations.”
Negotiations have stalled over how to proceed with a ceasefire whose first phase expired in early March, with Israel and Hamas disagreeing on whether to move to a new phase intended to bring the war to an end.
Instead, Israel and the United States have sought to change the terms of the deal by extending stage one.
That would delay the start of phase two, which was meant to establish a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and was swiftly rejected by Hamas, which demanded full implementation of the original deal.
“There is no need for new agreements in light of the existing agreement signed by all parties,” Nunu said.

Israel and the United States have portrayed Hamas’s rejection of an extended stage one as a refusal to release more Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu’s office said he ordered the renewed strikes on Gaza after “Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages.”
In a televised address late Tuesday, the premier said: “From now on, negotiations will take place only under fire... Military pressure is essential for the release of additional hostages.
“Hamas has already felt the strength of our arm in the past 24 hours. And I want to promise you — and them — this is only the beginning.”
The White House said Israel consulted US President Donald Trump’s administration before launching the strikes, while Israel said the return to fighting was “fully coordinated” with Washington.
The intense Israeli bombardment sent a stream of new casualties to the few hospitals still functioning in Gaza and triggered fears of a return to full-blown war after two months of relative calm.
The roads were once again filled with Palestinian civilians on the move as families responded to evacuation warnings from the Israeli army.
“Today I felt that Gaza is a real hell,” said Jihan Nahhal, a 43-year-old from Gaza City, adding some of her relatives were wounded or killed in the strikes.
“Suddenly there were huge explosions, as if it were the first day of the war.”
The Gaza health ministry said the bodies of 413 people had been received by hospitals, adding people were still under the rubble.
A spokeswoman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF said medical facilities that “have already been decimated” by the war were now “overwhelmed.”

Governments in the Middle East, Europe and beyond called for the renewed hostilities to end.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Israel’s raids on Gaza “are shattering the tangible hopes of so many Israelis and Palestinians of an end to suffering on all sides.”
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she told her Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar that the new strikes on Gaza were “unacceptable.”
Both Egypt and Qatar, which brokered the Gaza ceasefire alongside the United States, condemned Israel’s resort to military action.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said the strikes were part of “deliberate efforts to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable and force the Palestinians into displacement.”
Trump has floated a proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza, an idea rejected by Palestinians and governments in the region and beyond, but embraced by some Israeli politicians.
Israel’s resumption of military operations in Gaza, after it already halted all humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza this month, drew an immediate political dividend for Netanyahu.
The far-right Otzma Yehudit party, which quit his ruling coalition in January in protest at the Gaza ceasefire, rejoined its ranks with its firebrand leader Itamar Ben Gvir again becoming national security minister.
The war began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in 1,218 deaths, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation in Gaza has killed at least 48,577 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory’s health ministry.
Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 58 are still in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.


UK and European allies urge Israel to lift Gaza aid blockade, warn against annexation

Updated 14 May 2025
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UK and European allies urge Israel to lift Gaza aid blockade, warn against annexation

  • In joint statement delivered at UN Security Council, group said Israeli government’s ongoing obstruction of aid deliveries was “unacceptable”

NEW YORK CITY: The UK and four European allies on Tuesday issued a joint appeal to Israel to immediately lift its blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza, warning that continued restrictions are placing millions of Palestinian civilians at risk of starvation and undermining prospects for peace

In a joint statement delivered at the United Nations, Britain, France, Denmark, Greece and Slovenia said the Israeli government’s ongoing obstruction of aid deliveries, now entering its third month, was “unacceptable” and risked compounding what UN agencies have described as a looming famine.

“Blocking aid as a ‘pressure lever’ is unacceptable,” the five nations said.

“Palestinian civilians, including children, face starvation… Without an urgent lifting of the aid block, more Palestinians are at risk of dying. Deaths that could easily be avoided.”

The group, which called the emergency Security Council meeting on Gaza, also warned that any Israeli move to annex parts of the territory would breach international law and deepen instability in the region.

“Any attempt by Israel to annex land in Gaza would be unacceptable and violate international law,” the statement read. “Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change.”

The intervention follows the Israeli Security Cabinet’s recent approval of plans to expand its military operations in Gaza, a move the European countries said would only add to Palestinian suffering while doing little to secure the return of hostages still held by Hamas.

“We strongly oppose both these actions,” the statement said, referring to the blockade and the expansion of military activity. “They do nothing to serve the long-term interests of peace and security in the region — nor to secure the safe return of the hostages.”

The five governments welcomed the recent release of Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American hostage held by Hamas since October 7, but reiterated demands for the immediate and unconditional release of all remaining captives.

“Their suffering must end,” they said. “Hamas must have no future role in Gaza or be in a position to threaten Israel.”

The joint statement also expressed concern over proposals to create a new aid delivery mechanism in Gaza that, according to the UN, would fail to meet established humanitarian principles.

“Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool or military tactic,” the countries warned. “Any model for distributing humanitarian aid must be independent, impartial and neutral, and in line with international law.”

They emphasized that international humanitarian law obliged Israel to allow “safe, rapid and unimpeded” access for humanitarian assistance, adding: “Gaza is not an exception.”

The group condemned recent attacks on humanitarian personnel, including the killing of Palestinian Red Crescent workers and a strike on a UN compound on March 19, which they called “outrageous.”

“At least 418 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began,” the statement noted. “That is at least 418 too many.”

The countries urged Israel to complete and publish the findings of its investigation into the UN compound incident and to “take concrete action to ensure this can never happen again.”

Looking ahead, the five nations reiterated calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and renewed efforts toward a two-state solution, backing France and Saudi Arabia’s plans to host an international conference on the issue in New York next month.

“This is the only way to achieve long-term peace and security for both Palestinians and Israelis,” the statement concluded.


WHO warns of permanent impact of hunger on a generation of Gazans

Updated 13 May 2025
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WHO warns of permanent impact of hunger on a generation of Gazans

GENEVA: Malnutrition rates are rising in Gaza, emergency treatments to counter it are running out and hunger could have a lasting impact on “an entire generation,” a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday.

Israel has blockaded supplies into the enclave since early March, when it resumed its devastating military campaign against Hamas, and a global hunger monitor on Monday warned that half a million people there faced starvation.

WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Rik Peeperkorn said he had seen children who looked years younger than their age and visited a north Gaza hospital where over 20 percent of children screened suffered from acute malnutrition.

“What we see is an increasing trend in generalized acute malnutrition,” Peeperkorn told a press briefing by video link from Deir Al-Balah. “I’ve seen a child that’s five years old, and you would say it was two-and-a-half.”

“Without enough nutritious food, clean water and access to health care, an entire generation will be permanently affected,” he said, warning of stunting and impaired cognitive development.

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency Philippe Lazzarini told the BBC that he thought Israel was denying food and aid to civilians as a weapon of war.

The WHO criticized it in a statement late on Monday as “grossly inadequate” to meet the population’s immediate needs.

Due to the blockade, WHO only has enough stocks to treat 500 children with acute malnutrition, which is only a fraction of what is needed, Peeperkorn said.

Already, 55 children have died of acute malnutrition, he said.


UN aid chief slams Israel’s Gaza aid plan as ‘cynical sideshow’

Updated 13 May 2025
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UN aid chief slams Israel’s Gaza aid plan as ‘cynical sideshow’

  • “We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access,” said Fletcher
  • No aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher on Tuesday said an Israeli plan aid distribution in the Gaza Strip was a “cynical sideshow, a deliberate distraction, a fig leaf for further violence and displacement” of Palestinians in the enclave.

He told the UN Security Council that no food, medicine, water or tents have entered the war-torn Palestinian enclave for more than 10 weeks.

“We can save hundreds of thousands of survivors. We have rigorous mechanisms to ensure our aid gets to civilians and not to Hamas, but Israel denies us access, placing the objective of depopulating Gaza before the lives of civilians,” said Fletcher.


No aid has been delivered to Gaza since March 2. Israel has said it would not allow the entry of goods and supplies into Gaza until Palestinian militant group Hamas releases all remaining hostages.

At the end of last month the UN World Food Programme said it had run out of food stocks in Gaza, and US President Donald Trump said that he pushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the delivery of food and medicine.

Fletcher said the UN has met more than a dozen times with Israeli authorities to discuss their proposed aid distribution model “to find a way to make it possible,” stressing the minimum conditions needed for UN involvement. Those included the ability to deliver aid to all those in need wherever they are.

“The Israeli-designed distribution modality is not the answer,” he told the 15-member council.

“It forces further displacement. It exposes thousands of people to harm ... It restricts aid to only one part of Gaza while leaving other dire needs unmet. It makes aid conditional on political and military aims. It makes starvation a bargaining chip,” Fletcher said.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, met with UN agencies and international aid groups in early April and proposed “a structured monitoring and aid entry mechanism.”

“The mechanism is designed to support aid organizations, enhance oversight and accountability, and ensure that assistance reaches the civilian population in need, rather than being diverted and stolen by Hamas,” COGAT posted on X on April 3.

The war in Gaza was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 52,700 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities.


Syria says US lifting of sanctions ‘pivotal turning point’

Updated 13 May 2025
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Syria says US lifting of sanctions ‘pivotal turning point’

  • Syria welcomed US President Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on the country
  • Celebrations broke out in the capital Damascus and across the country

DAMASCUS: Syria on Tuesday welcomed US President Donald Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on the country, calling it a “pivotal turning point,” as celebrations broke out in Damascus.
The Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement that the country welcomed Trump’s announcement, calling it a “pivotal turning point for the Syrian people, as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war.”
“The removal of those sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency, and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,” the statement added.
In a speech given in Riyadh amidst Trump’s trip to the Middle East, the US president said he “will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.”
Ever since overthrowing longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, Syria’s new rulers have been pushing Western states to lift sanctions imposed on the country largely during the former president’s rule.
During his visit to Paris last week, Syrian interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa said there was no justification for maintaining European sanctions imposed against the Assad government.
“These sanctions were imposed on the previous regime because of the crimes it committed, and this regime is gone,” Sharaa said in a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“With the removal of the regime, these sanctions should be removed as well, and there is no justification for keeping the sanctions,” he added.
US sanctions have isolated Syria from the global financial system and imposed a range of economic restrictions on the government throughout more than a decade of civil war.
The lingering sanctions have widely been seen as a major obstacle to Syria’s economic recovery and post-war reconstruction.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani expressed “gratitude” to Saudi Arabia for its role in pushing for the lifting of the sanctions.
Celebration across Syria
Finance Minister Mohammed Barnieh said Trump’s lifting of sanctions “will help Syria in building its institutions, providing essential services to the people and will create great opportunities to attract investment and restore confidence in Syria’s future.”
Syrians met the news with joy and celebration, with dozens of men, women and children gathering in Damascus’s Umayyad Square. They blasted music while others drove by in their cars waving Syrian flags.
“My joy is great, this decision will definitely affect the entire country positively. Construction will return, the displaced will return, and prices will go down,” said Huda Qassar, a 33-year-old English language teacher, celebrating with her compatriots.
In the northern province of Idlib, manufacturer Bassam Al-Ahmed, 39, said he was very happy about the lifting of US sanctions.
“It is the right of the Syrian people, after 14 years of war and 50 years of the Assads’ oppression, to live through stability and safety,” he said.
“The most important thing is economic stability, which cannot be achieved without lifting American sanctions to increase investment opportunities within Syria and encourage people to work, in addition to securing raw materials and many products that Syria has been deprived of due to sanctions,” he added.


Iran says it’s open to temporary uranium enrichment limits

Updated 13 May 2025
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Iran says it’s open to temporary uranium enrichment limits

  • Iran described Sunday’s talks as “difficult but useful” while a senior US official said Washington was “encouraged” and both sides confirmed plans for future negotiations

TEHRAN: Iran is open to accepting temporary limits on its uranium enrichment, its deputy foreign minister said Tuesday, while adding that talks with the US have yet to address such specifics.

Tehran and Washington on Sunday held their fourth round of nuclear talks, which kicked off last month, marking their highest-level contact since the US in 2018 pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal.

“For a limited period of time, we can accept a series of restrictions on the level and volume of enrichment,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi.

“We have not yet gone into details about the level and volume of enrichment,” he said, quoted by Tasnim news agency.

Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent purity — far above the 3.67 percent limit set in the 2015 deal but below the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade material.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that Iran was the only country in the world without nuclear weapons that enriches uranium to that level.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said at the latest talks that the right to enrich uranium was “non-negotiable,” while US chief negotiator Steve Witkoff called it a “red line.”

The Islamic republic began rolling back its commitments to the deal a year after the US withdrawal.

Since returning to office in January, Trump has revived his “maximum pressure” approach against Tehran. While backing nuclear diplomacy, he also warned of potential military action if it fails.

Iran described Sunday’s talks as “difficult but useful” while a senior US official said Washington was “encouraged” and both sides confirmed plans for future negotiations.

The talks are being held in “full coordination” with the supreme leader, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said, according to a presidency statement on Tuesday.

“In the negotiations, we will not retreat from our principles in any way, but at the same time, we do not want tensions,” he added.

Also on Tuesday, Iran’s atomic energy agency chief, Mohammad Eslami, described the country’s nuclear industry as its “wealth and strength,” according to ISNA news agency.

Despite the talks, Washington has continued to impose sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear program and oil industry, with the latest announced on Monday.

“There is no doubt that there is a lot of pressure on us,” said Ali Larijani, a close adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, while noting that not all of Iran’s problems were due to the sanctions.