On Friday, US President Joe Biden said that Israel and Hamas agreed to a framework on a Gaza ceasefire. On Saturday, Israel carried out airstrikes on Khan Yunis's Al Mawasi district, which, according to the Gaza health ministry, killed 70 and injured almost 290 people. Several media outlets reported that ceasefire talks at Hamas's initiative.
"What Agence France-Presse and some other media outlets published about the Hamas movement's decision to stop talks in response to the mass killing in Al Mawasi to the west of Khan Yunis, is not true," al-Risheq said in a statement.
On October 7, 2023, Palestinian movement Hamas launched a large-scale rocket attack against Israel and breached the border, attacking both civilian neighborhoods and military bases. Nearly 1,200 people in Israel were killed and some 240 others abducted during the attack. Israel launched retaliatory strikes, ordered a complete blockade of Gaza, and started a ground incursion into the Palestinian enclave with the declared goal of eliminating Hamas fighters and rescuing the hostages.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip has reached 38,584 since last October, while over 88,800 have been injured, according to the Palestinian enclave's health ministry's estimates.