Israel escalated its strikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu piled pressure on Hamas to accept his demands in ceasefire talks that are under way in Qatar.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators have been struggling to make a breakthrough on a truce that would secure the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The militant group has said it will only return the captives if Israel commits to ending the war, while Netanyahu says he will not stop until he achieves “total victory” over Hamas.
The latest bombardment has killed more than 150 people across Gaza since Thursday, Palestinian and international media reported, citing local health officials. In the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, some 30 people were reported dead, while dozens remain missing.
Analysts said the strikes are a means to soften Hamas’s position at the bargaining table — while preparing for a full-scale invasion of the strip. Netanyahu has vowed that negotiations with Hamas “would only take place under fire”.
“He’s in negotiations,” said one person with knowledge of Israeli government deliberations, adding that, the longer the talks continued, the more hope there was of a breakthrough. The government approved plans to escalate the offensive last week, while its blockades of aid and food have intensified a humanitarian crisis in the territory.
Steve Witkoff, US special envoy for the Middle East, has been leading the talks that began on Tuesday in Doha, which include a high-level Israeli negotiating team and Hamas officials based in the Qatari capital.
Israeli officials said US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf this week provided a “window of opportunity” to secure a deal before the new military campaign was launched.
“We continue to work to get that war ended as quickly as possible . . . the people of Gaza deserve a much better future,” Trump told Arab leaders in Riyadh on Wednesday. He blamed the “horrible things taking place” there on Hamas.
Netanyahu told wounded reservists on Tuesday that the offensive would begin “in the very near coming days”.
“We will enter with all our might to complete the move” to destroy Hamas, he said.
But the premier left open the possibility of a temporary, multi-week truce before then, which would see the release of some 10 living Israeli hostages. He vowed to restart the war after any potential ceasefire.
Israel believes 58 hostages remain in Gaza — and that 20 of them are still alive. Following negotiations with US officials Hamas on Monday released Edan Alexander, a dual Israeli-American national taken hostage while serving in the Israeli military during Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack that triggered the war.
Netanyahu in March ended the previous truce, which lasted two months, and restarted the military campaign. He halted aid deliveries in an attempt to pressure Hamas to release additional hostages.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, according to health officials in the Hamas-controlled enclave. Israeli officials say 1,200 people were killed during the October 7 attack and some 250 taken hostage.
