Hamas says fresh truce talks underway ‘without preconditions’ after Israel launches major offensive

Hours after Israel launched a major offensive, Hamas said that its negotiators have opened a new round of talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza. Taher al-Nounou, an adviser to the head of Hamas, said a new round of negotiations had officially begun in Doha on Saturday, reported BBC. 
There were no preconditions from either side, and all issues were on the table for discussion.

Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, said Hamas negotiators were returning to indirect talks in Qatar to seek a deal on the hostages.
Katz called the move a “departure from the recalcitrant position they had taken up until that moment”.

The move came after Israel’s military said on its X account that it has mobilised troops for “Operation Gideon’s Chariots” to seize “strategic areas” of Gaza and free hostages.
It said it would not stop operating “until Hamas is no longer a threat and all our hostages are home”, and that it had “struck over 150 terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” in 24 hours.

The Times of Israel said that “Gideon’s Chariots”—a reference to a biblical warrior—would see the IDF take and control territory, move civilians to the south of the Strip, attack Hamas, and prevent it from taking control of aid supplies.

Thousands of Israeli troops, including soldiers and reservists, are expected to enter Gaza as the operation ramps up in the coming days.
Israel imposed an aid blockade on the Strip in March after the breakdown of a two-month ceasefire. US President Donald Trump said on Friday that “a lot of people were starving” in Gaza.