Gaza escalation: Hamas accuses Israel of "war crimes"

The Israeli security cabinet under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously decided that the military should take the city of Gaza. The civilian population should therefore move to other areas of the sealed-off coastal strip before Israeli troops enter the city of Gaza.

Is the Netanyahu government sacrificing the hostages?

According to Hamas, the politicians in Netanyahu's government are indifferent to the fate of the hostages. "They know that expanding the aggression means sacrificing them." In retrospect, the decision explains why Israel withdrew from the indirect negotiations shortly before an agreement was reached, which had been about a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Hamas is still prepared to negotiate a solution, it said. This would also include a comprehensive agreement aimed at releasing all hostages and ending the war in one go. Netanyahu had previously only sought a step-by-step agreement with the release of some of the hostages and the option of continuing the war. Hamas rejected the latter and demanded guarantees for an end to the war.

The war was triggered by the massacre by Hamas and other extremists from Gaza in Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.