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A view of destroyed buildings by Israeli bombardments in the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, March 19, 2025
| Photo Credit: AP
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Hamas has not shut the door on negotiations, an official from the Palestinian Islamist group said Wednesday (March 19, 2025), after Israel launched its most intense bombardment of Gaza since a January 19 ceasefire.
“Hamas has not closed the door on negotiations but we insist there is no need for new agreements,” Taher al-Nunu told AFP on the phone from Cairo, also calling for Israel to be forced to implement the ceasefire.
“There is no need for new agreements in light of the existing agreement signed by all parties,” he added.
Under the ceasefire deal drafted under former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, a second phase of the truce should have begun in early March.
The agreement stipulated that Israeli forces should withdraw from Gaza and that a more lasting ceasefire should take effect during a second phase.
“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,” Mr. Nunu said.
He called on the international community to “take urgent action” to end the war, while accusing Israel of “violating the ceasefire agreement it signed”.
Determined to force Hamas to agree to the release of more hostages, Israel on Tuesday (March 18, 2025) launched the biggest and deadliest wave of air strikes since the truce took effect.
The truce agreement brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt took effect more than 15 months into the war triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, Israel’s strikes on Tuesday (March 18, 2025) killed more than 400 people, making it one of the deadliest days in Gaza in the entire war.
On Wednesday (March 19, 2025), Gaza’s civil defence agency said 13 people had been killed in new Israeli strikes on the territory since midnight.
Published – March 19, 2025 03:44 pm IST
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Hamas has ‘not closed the door’ on talks, official says
