JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump accused Hamas on Friday of not wanting to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza as Israel said it would explore “alternative options” to rescue hostages after negotiations collapsed.
An Israeli official meanwhile told AFP air drops of aid would resume soon over the Gaza Strip, where aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children after more than 21 months of war.
After US and Israeli negotiators quit indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar, Trump said that “it was was too bad. Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die.”
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});The US president argued that the Palestinian militant group was not ready to hand over the remaining captives in Gaza because “they know what happens after you get the final hostages”.
His special envoy Steve Witkoff accused Hamas of not “acting in good faith” in the negotiations that ended on Thursday.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim in turn accused Witkoff of distorting the reality of the talks and walking back on agreements that had been reached between the parties.
Witkoff was looking to “serve the Israeli position”, Naim told AFP.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace.”
Witkoff similarly said Washington would “consider alternative options” on Gaza, without elaborating on what they could entail.
Netanyahu’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called to reinstate a complete aid blockade, occupy the entirety of Gaza, “encourage” its people to leave and re-establish Israeli settlements there.
Mediators Qatar and Egypt said the talks could still resume, vowing to carry on with “intensive efforts” to secure an elusive breakthrough.
More than 100 aid and human rights groups warned this week that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said that a quarter of the young children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers it had screened at its clinics last week were malnourished, a day after the United Nations said one in five children in Gaza City were suffering from malnutrition.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany, in a joint statement Friday, said the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza “must end now”.
“We call on the Israeli government to immediately lift restrictions on the flow of aid” and facilitate the “urgent” work of UN agencies and humanitarian groups, the European leaders said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to the suffering of starving Palestinians, calling it a “moral crisis that challenges the global conscience”.
Israel has rejected accusations it is responsible for the deepening crisis in Gaza, which the World Health Organization has called “man-made”.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,676 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Of the 251 hostages taken during the attack, 49 are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.