Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, both saying it had become clear that the Palestinian group did not want a deal.
Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling "alternative" options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave, where starvation is spreading and most of the population is homeless amid widespread ruin.
Trump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be "hunted down", telling reporters at the White House: "Hamas really didn't want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it's very bad. And it got to be to a point where you're going to have to finish the job."
The remarks appeared to leave little to no room, at least in the short term, to resume negotiations to pause the fighting, at a time when international concern is mounting over worsening hunger in war-shattered Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron, responding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza, announced overnight that Paris would become the first major Western power to recognize an independent Palestinian state. Britain and Germany said they were not yet ready to do so.
Trump dismissed Macron's move. "What he says doesn't matter," he told reporters at the White House. "He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight."
Israel and the United States withdrew their delegations on Thursday from the ceasefire talks in Qatar, hours after Hamas submitted its response to a truce proposal.
Sources initially said on Thursday that the Israeli withdrawal was only for consultations and did not necessarily mean the talks had reached a crisis. But Netanyahu's remarks suggested Israel's position had hardened overnight.
US envoy Steve Witkoff said overnight Hamas was to blame for the impasse, and Netanyahu said Witkoff had got it right.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said on Facebook that the talks had been constructive, and criticized Witkoff's remarks as aimed at exerting pressure on Israel's behalf.
"What we have presented - with full awareness and understanding of the complexity of the situation - we believe could lead to a deal if the enemy had the will to reach one," he said.
The proposed ceasefire would suspend fighting for 60 days, allow more aid into Gaza, and free some of the 50 remaining hostages held by fighters in return for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
It has been held up by disagreement over how far Israel should withdraw its troops and the future beyond the 60 days if no permanent agreement is reached.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right national security minister in Netanyahu's coalition, welcomed Netanyahu's step, calling for a total halt of aid to Gaza and complete conquest of the enclave, adding in a post on X: "Total annihilation of Hamas, encourage emigration, (Jewish) settlement."
MASS HUNGER
International aid organizations say mass hunger has now arrived among Gaza's 2.2 million people, with stocks running out after Israel cut off all supplies to the territory in March, then reopened it in May but with new restrictions.
The Israeli military said on Friday it had agreed to let countries airdrop aid into Gaza. Hamas dismissed this as a stunt.
"The Gaza Strip does not need flying aerobatics, it needs an open humanitarian corridor and a steady daily flow of aid trucks to save what remains of the lives of besieged, starving civilians," Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, told Reuters.
Gaza medical authorities said nine more Palestinians had died over the past 24 hours from malnutrition or starvation. Dozens have died in the past few weeks as hunger worsens.
Israel says it has let enough food into Gaza and accuses the United Nations of failing to distribute it, in what the Israeli foreign ministry called on Friday "a deliberate ploy to defame Israel". The United Nations says it is operating as effectively as possible under Israeli restrictions.
United Nations agencies said on Friday that supplies were running out in Gaza of specialized therapeutic food to save the lives of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
The ceasefire talks have been accompanied by continuing Israeli offensives on the ground. Palestinian health officials said Israeli airstrikes and gunfire had killed at least 21 people across the enclave on Friday, including five killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City.
In the city, residents carried the body of journalist Adam Abu Harbid through the streets wrapped in a white shroud, his blue flak jacket marked PRESS draped across his body. He was killed overnight in a strike on tents housing displaced people.
Mahmoud Awadia, another journalist attending the funeral, said the Israelis were deliberately trying to kill reporters. Israel denies intentionally targeting journalists.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns near the border, killing some 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages on October 7, 2023. Since then, Israeli forces have killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, health officials there say, and reduced much of the enclave to ruins.
Israel and the United States both criticized Macron's decision to recognize Palestinian independence. Netanyahu called it a "reward for terrorism".
Western countries have been committed for decades to an eventual independent Palestinian state but have long said it should arise out of a negotiated peace process.
Europe's two other big powers, Britain and Germany, made clear there were no plans to act on Palestinian statehood right away.
Germany has a long history of supporting Israel arising from its guilt in the Nazi Holocaust. Britain said on Friday its first priority was alleviating Gaza's humanitarian disaster and securing a ceasefire.
"Israel's security is of paramount importance to the German government," a German government spokesperson said. "The German government therefore has no plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term."
