Hamas Says Open to Talks as Israel Keeps up Gaza Strikes 

This picture, taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, shows destroyed buildings in northern Gaza on March 19, 2025. (AFP)
This picture, taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, shows destroyed buildings in northern Gaza on March 19, 2025. (AFP)
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Hamas Says Open to Talks as Israel Keeps up Gaza Strikes 

This picture, taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, shows destroyed buildings in northern Gaza on March 19, 2025. (AFP)
This picture, taken from Israel's southern border with the Gaza Strip, shows destroyed buildings in northern Gaza on March 19, 2025. (AFP)

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 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.

- 'Only the beginning' -

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".

- 'Shattering' hopes -

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 al-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.



Syrian Govt Visits Notorious Al-Hol Camp for First Time Since Kurds Deal

A view of the Al-Hol camp. (AFP file)
A view of the Al-Hol camp. (AFP file)
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Syrian Govt Visits Notorious Al-Hol Camp for First Time Since Kurds Deal

A view of the Al-Hol camp. (AFP file)
A view of the Al-Hol camp. (AFP file)

A Syrian government delegation visited a notorious camp in the Kurdish-administered northeast that hosts families of suspected ISIS group members, the new authorities' first visit, both sides said Saturday.

Kurdish-run camps and prisons in the northeast hold tens of thousands of people, many with alleged or perceived links to ISIS, more than five years after the group’s territorial defeat in Syria.

Kurdish administration official Sheikhmous Ahmed said "a tripartite meeting was held on Saturday in the Al-Hol camp" that included a government delegation, another from the US-led international coalition fighting ISIS, and Kurdish administration members.

Al-Hol is northeast Syria's largest camp, housing some 37,000 people from dozens of countries, including 14,500 Iraqis, in dire conditions.

Discussions involved "establishing a mechanism for removing Syrian families from Al-Hol camp", Ahmed said.

The visit comes more than two months after interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, head of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, agreed to integrate the Kurds' civil and military institutions into the national government.

The deal also involved guaranteeing the return of all Syrians to their hometowns and villages.

No progress has yet been reported on the administration's integration into the new government.

In Damascus, interior ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba told reporters Al-Hol is "part of the agreement" signed by Sharaa and Abdi.

He said the issue requires "a comprehensive societal solution for the families who are victims" of ISIS.

In February, the Kurdish administration said that in coordination with the United Nations, it aimed to empty camps in the northeast of thousands of displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees, including suspected relatives of extremists, by the end of the year.

Al-Hol includes a high-security section for families of foreign ISIS fighters.

Ahmed said the fate of those families "is linked to the countries that have nationals (in the camp), and to the international coalition", which supported Kurdish-led forces who fought ISIS, detaining its fighters and their relatives.

The Kurds have repeatedly called on countries to repatriate their citizens, but foreign governments have allowed home only a trickle, fearing security threats and a domestic political backlash.

It is unclear who will administer prisons holding thousands of ISIS fighters in the northeast, with Abdi saying in February the new authorities wanted them under Damascus's control.