A senior Hamas official said in early May 2025 that the group saw no point in considering new ceasefire and hostage-release proposals while Israel continued blocking humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza, describing the restrictions as a "starvation war."
The comments by Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim came as Israel prepared to expand its military campaign in the Gaza Strip and amid mounting international concern about food shortages, displacement and the proposed restructuring of humanitarian aid distribution.
Israel had halted the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies into Gaza on March 2, after the first phase of a ceasefire expired. Israeli forces resumed major military operations on March 18. Israel said the measures were intended to increase pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages and argued that Hamas had diverted aid, an allegation Hamas denied.
Hamas Rejects New Negotiations Under Aid Blockade
Naim said there was "no point in any negotiations or engagement with new proposals" while Israel maintained what he called its "starvation war" against Palestinians in Gaza. His description was Hamas's characterization of Israeli policy rather than an independent legal finding.
Hamas separately argued that Israel's decision to expand military operations endangered the remaining Israeli hostages. Israel maintained that increased military pressure was intended to help secure their release and weaken Hamas.
The dispute followed the collapse of a ceasefire that had taken effect on January 19, 2025. During its first phase, Hamas and other Palestinian groups released Israeli hostages while Israel released Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and humanitarian deliveries into Gaza increased substantially.
Israel Approves Expanded Gaza Offensive
Israel's security cabinet approved plans in early May for a substantially expanded military operation in Gaza. Israeli officials said the campaign would involve taking and holding territory and moving civilians away from combat areas.
On May 5, Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said the military was moving into a more intensive phase called Operation Gideon's Chariots. The stated objectives were the return of the hostages and the dismantling and defeat of Hamas's governing and military capabilities.
Israeli officials also indicated that the expanded operation would not begin immediately, leaving time for another hostage and ceasefire agreement to be reached.
The planned expansion drew criticism from the United Nations. UN Secretary-General António Guterres's office warned that a prolonged Israeli military presence and expanded ground operations would lead to more civilian deaths and destruction.
UN Rejects Proposed Aid Distribution System
A parallel dispute centered on Israel's plans to replace much of the existing humanitarian distribution system with a new mechanism operating from designated hubs. Israeli officials said changing the system was intended to prevent Hamas from obtaining humanitarian supplies.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs objected to the proposal. OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said the system described to humanitarian organizations appeared to be an attempt to "weaponize the aid" and conflicted with the principles of impartiality, neutrality and independent humanitarian delivery.
The UN argued that assistance should be distributed according to humanitarian need rather than through arrangements that could encourage or require civilians to move toward particular areas. Humanitarian organizations also warned that concentrating distribution sites in southern Gaza could make assistance harder to reach for vulnerable people elsewhere in the territory.
Israel maintained that its proposed system was designed to ensure aid reached civilians rather than Hamas. The disagreement therefore involved both the mechanism for distributing assistance and the humanitarian consequences of concentrating distribution in designated locations.
Food Insecurity Was Rapidly Worsening
At the time of Naim's comments, the halt in incoming supplies had lasted more than two months. An OCHA humanitarian update reported that, as of May 6, more than 428,000 people had been displaced again since hostilities resumed on March 18.
A subsequent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment, released on May 12, found that the entire Gaza Strip faced severe acute food insecurity and a critical risk of famine. For the period beginning May 11, the IPC projected that about 470,000 people would face Catastrophe-level acute food insecurity, its most severe classification.
That assessment did not declare that famine was occurring throughout Gaza. A formal IPC famine classification requires specific thresholds for food deprivation, acute malnutrition and mortality. The IPC instead warned that the risk of famine was becoming increasingly likely if the blockade, large-scale military operations and restrictions on humanitarian access continued.
Competing Claims Over Aid
Israel accused Hamas of stealing or diverting humanitarian supplies, while Hamas rejected the allegation. UN humanitarian agencies said their established distribution network included monitoring and accountability mechanisms and argued that large-scale, sustained aid entry was necessary to reduce hunger and desperation.
The dispute over aid became one of the central issues surrounding the renewed fighting. Humanitarian organizations stressed that allowing supplies across the border was only one part of the challenge: aid also had to be transported safely through Gaza and delivered to civilians across different parts of the territory.
On May 16, the UN outlined a plan for resuming large-scale humanitarian deliveries, saying thousands of truckloads' worth of supplies were positioned for entry and proposing tracking, inspection and distribution through the existing UN-led humanitarian network.
Civilian Casualties and Displacement Continued
Israeli strikes and ground operations continued during the dispute over negotiations and aid. Palestinian civil defense authorities reported dozens of deaths in strikes on May 6, including casualties at a school being used as a shelter in the Bureij refugee camp. The Israeli military said it had targeted militants operating from a Hamas command-and-control site. Such battlefield casualty and targeting claims were difficult to independently verify in real time.
The wider war began after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Israel subsequently launched a large-scale military campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Palestinian casualty totals reported during the war came primarily from Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry and rose substantially as the conflict continued.
Later Developments
The May 2025 confrontation over negotiations, humanitarian access and Israel's expanded offensive did not mark the end of the conflict. Limited aid entry resumed later that month, while fighting and severe humanitarian conditions continued through the following months.
Later in 2025, a new ceasefire took effect on October 10. UN humanitarian reporting documented a substantial increase in aid deliveries after that agreement, although serious humanitarian needs and restrictions persisted. By January 2026, OCHA was still reporting humanitarian operations under the October ceasefire.
The later ceasefire does not change the status of the May 2025 episode: at that point, negotiations were stalled, Israel was preparing an expanded ground campaign, humanitarian organizations were warning of rapidly deteriorating food security, and the parties remained sharply divided over both the terms of a ceasefire and the system for delivering aid to Gaza's civilian population.
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