Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel dismissed a Hamas counterproposal for a cease-fire, saying on Wednesday that an Israeli victory in Gaza was “inside attain.”
“There isn’t any resolution moreover whole victory,” Mr. Netanyahu stated throughout a information convention in Jerusalem, shortly after assembly with the U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, to debate peace proposals. “If Hamas survives in Gaza, it’s solely a matter of time till the following bloodbath.”
His feedback appeared to dampen the cautious hopes raised on Tuesday, when U.S. and Qatari officers stated the Hamas supply mirrored potential progress. However Mr. Netanyahu, a canny negotiator, prevented specifics in his information convention, leaving issues considerably murky.
In response to a suggestion negotiated by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Hamas submitted a cease-fire proposal that outlined a path to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the discharge of Hamas’s remaining hostages in change for a few of hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
With out specifying any particulars of the Hamas proposal, Mr. Netanyahu stated “give up to the ludicrous calls for of Hamas” would neither free the greater than 100 hostages nonetheless in Gaza nor restore Israel’s safety.
Requested particularly whether or not Israel had formally rejected the framework, Mr. Netanyahu stated: “Primarily based on what they handed to us? From what I’ve seen up to now — you, too, would have stated no.”
Hamas’s proposed deal would successfully finish Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza with out toppling the group’s rule there, analysts stated. Mr. Netanyahu rejects any postwar association that leaves Hamas in energy, saying that it might enable the group to commit one other assault on Israel just like the Oct. 7 assault that killed roughly 1,200 folks.
In a information convention in Beirut, Lebanon, a Hamas chief, Osama Hamdan, insisted that the group’s proposal had been honest, referred to as on the US to assist halt the warfare, and stated {that a} delegation from the group’s management would journey to Cairo to pursue talks on the supply.
Mr. Hamdan harassed the urgency of the necessity for the warfare to cease, saying, “No phrases or reviews can describe the dimensions of the humanitarian disaster and the horror of the true tragedy left by the occupation within the Gaza Strip.”
Mr. Netanyahu stated on Wednesday that Israel’s management had directed the navy to organize to deploy in Rafah, on the southern border of Gaza, an space during which over 1.4 million Palestinians are believed to have crowded, in search of shelter, in line with the United Nations. The navy was additionally planning to function in camps within the central Gaza Strip, he added, calling the areas “Hamas’s final remaining strongholds.”
António Guterres, the U.N. secretary common, pronounced himself “particularly alarmed” on Wednesday by reviews the Israeli navy supposed to focus subsequent on Rafah, the place displaced Palestinians “have been squeezed in a determined seek for security.”
“Such an motion would exponentially enhance what’s already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional penalties,” stated Mr. Guterres, renewing his name for a right away cease-fire and the discharge of hostages held in Gaza.
The Israeli authorities have stated 253 Israelis and international nationals have been taken hostage on Oct. 7. Greater than 100 have been launched, largely throughout a weeklong cease-fire deal that started final November. Israeli officers say 136 stay in Gaza, together with dozens who’re believed to be lifeless.
Fearing for the remaining hostages after 4 months of warfare, their households have stepped up their requires the federal government to right away attain a hostage take care of Hamas. Some have begun sleeping in a protest tent close to the prime minister’s Jerusalem residence.
“I deal with you, Mr. Netanyahu, all the pieces is in your fingers. You’re the one who can,” stated Adina Moshe, 72, an Israeli hostage who was free of Hamas captivity through the weeklong cease-fire. “I’m terribly afraid if you happen to proceed with this line of dismantling Hamas, no hostages might be left to launch.”
Mr. Netanyahu stated he had instructed Mr. Blinken that after Israel toppled Hamas, Israel would “make sure that Gaza might be demilitarized eternally.” Israel would proceed to function in Gaza “all over the place and anytime” in an effort to shield its safety, in order “to make sure that terrorism is not going to elevate its head once more,” he added.
Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.
