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.



Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill at Least 27 Palestinians

Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense remove debris as they search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 28, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense remove debris as they search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 28, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
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Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill at Least 27 Palestinians

Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense remove debris as they search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 28, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled
Members of the Palestinian Civil Defense remove debris as they search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip April 28, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip overnight into Monday killed at least 27 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
Israel has carried out daily strikes on Gaza since ending its ceasefire with Hamas last month. It has cut off the territory's 2 million Palestinians from all imports, including food and medicine, since the beginning of March in what it says is an attempt to pressure the militant group to release hostages.
The daily bombardment and widespread hunger is taking a heavy toll on Gaza's most vulnerable residents, including pregnant women and children.
An airstrike hit a home in Beit Lahiya, killing 10 people, including a Palestinian prisoner, Abdel-Fattah Abu Mahadi, who had been released as part of the ceasefire, The Associated Press reported. His wife, two of their children and a grandchild were also killed, according to the Indonesian Hospital, which received the bodies.
Another strike hit a home in Gaza City, killing seven people, including two women, according to the Gaza Health Ministry's emergency service. Two other people were wounded.
Late Sunday, a strike hit a home in the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least 10 people, including five siblings as young as 4 years old, according to the Health Ministry. Two other children were killed along with their parents, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.