TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas’ phrases for a cease-fire and hostage-release settlement, calling them “delusional” and leveling harsh criticism of any association that leaves the militant group in full or partial management of Gaza after the warfare.
He vowed to press forward with Israel’s warfare in opposition to Hamas, now in its fifth month, till reaching “absolute victory.”
Netanyahu made the feedback shortly after assembly the visiting U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who has been touring the area in hopes of securing a cease-fire settlement.
“Surrendering to Hamas’ delusional demands that we heard now not only won’t lead to freeing the captives, it will just invite another massacre,” Netanyahu stated in a nationally televised night information convention.
An Israeli tank in a position on the border with the Gaza Strip, as seen in southern Israel, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
“We are on the way to an absolute victory,” he stated, including that the operation would final months, not years. “There is no other solution.”
He dominated out any association that leaves Hamas in command of any a part of Gaza. He additionally stated that Israel is the “only power” able to guaranteeing safety in the long run.
Earlier, Blinken stated that “a lot of work” stays to bridge the hole between Israel and Hamas on phrases for any deal. He was anticipated to carry his personal information convention later Wednesday.
Hamas laid out an in depth, three-phase plan to unfold over 4 1/2 months, responding to a proposal drawn up by the United States, Israel, Qatar and Egypt. The plan stipulates that each one hostages could be launched in change for lots of of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, together with senior militants, and an finish to the warfare.
Israel has made destroying Hamas’ governing and navy talents one in every of its wartime goals, and Hamas’ proposal would successfully go away it in energy in Gaza and permit it to rebuild its navy capabilities.
U.S. President Joe Biden stated Hamas’ calls for are “a little over the top” however that negotiations will proceed.
The deadliest spherical of combating within the historical past of the Israeli-Palestinian battle has killed over 27,000 Palestinians, leveled complete neighborhoods, pushed the overwhelming majority of Gaza’s inhabitants from their houses and pushed 1 / 4 of the inhabitants to hunger.
Iran-backed militant teams throughout the area have carried out assaults, totally on U.S. and Israeli targets, in solidarity with the Palestinians, drawing reprisals as the danger of a wider battle grows.
Israel stays deeply shaken by the Oct. 7 attack wherein Hamas militants burst by means of the nation’s vaunted defenses and rampaged throughout southern Israel, killing some 1,200 folks, largely civilians, and abducting some 250, round half of whom stay in captivity in Gaza.
Blinken, who’s on his fifth go to to the area for the reason that warfare broke out, is attempting to advance the cease-fire talks whereas pushing for a bigger postwar settlement wherein Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in return for a “clear, credible, time-bound path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
But the more and more unpopular Netanyahu is against Palestinian statehood, and his hawkish governing coalition may collapse if he’s seen as making too many concessions.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work,” Blinken instructed Israel’s ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog.
MISERY DEEPENS IN DEVASTATED GAZA
There is little discuss of grand diplomatic bargains in Gaza, the place Palestinians yearn for an finish to combating that has upended each side of their lives.
“We pray to God that it stops,” stated Ghazi Abu Issa, who fled his home and sought shelter within the central city of Deir al-Balah. “There is no water, electricity, food or bathrooms.” Those dwelling in tents have been drenched by winter rains and flooding. “We have been humiliated,” he stated.
New moms wrestle to get child method and diapers, which may solely be purchased at vastly inflated costs if they are often discovered in any respect. Some have resorted to feeding stable meals to infants younger than 6 months old regardless of the well being dangers it poses.
The Palestinian loss of life toll from 4 months of warfare has reached 27,707, in line with the Health Ministry within the Hamas-run territory. That consists of 123 our bodies dropped at hospitals in simply the final 24 hours, it stated Wednesday. At least 11,000 wounded folks have to be urgently evacuated from Gaza, it stated.
The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures however says many of the lifeless have been girls and kids.
Israel has ordered Palestinians to evacuate areas that make up two-thirds of the tiny coastal territory. Most of the displaced are packed into the southern city of Rafah close to the border with Egypt, the place many live in squalid tent camps and overflowing U.N.-run shelters.
Hamas has continued to place up stiff resistance throughout the territory, and its police power has returned to the streets in locations the place Israeli troops have pulled again. Hamas remains to be holding over 130 hostages, however round 30 of them are believed to be lifeless, with the overwhelming majority killed on Oct. 7.
HAMAS SPELLS OUT DEMANDS FOR HOSTAGE DEAL
Hamas’ response to the cease-fire proposal was printed in Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is near the highly effective Hezbollah militant group.
A Hamas official and two Egyptian officers confirmed its authenticity. A fourth official accustomed to the talks later clarified the sequencing of the releases. All spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to temporary media on the negotiations.
In the primary 45-day section, Hamas would launch all remaining girls and kids, in addition to older and sick males, in change for an unspecified variety of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israel would additionally withdraw from populated areas, stop aerial operations, enable way more support to enter and allow Palestinians to return to their houses, together with in devastated northern Gaza.
The second section, to be negotiated through the first, would come with the discharge of all remaining hostages, largely troopers, in change for all Palestinian detainees over the age of fifty, together with senior militants. Israel would launch an extra 1,500 prisoners, 500 of whom could be specified by Hamas, and full its withdrawal from Gaza.
In the third section, the perimeters would change the stays of hostages and prisoners.
Netanyahu has stated he is not going to safe a deal at any cost, signaling he wouldn’t conform to the discharge of senior militants.
ISRAELIS AGONIZE OVER FATE OF CAPTIVES
Israelis are intensely targeted on the plight of the hostages, with members of the family and the broader public demanding a take care of Hamas, fearful that point is working out. Israeli forces have solely rescued one hostage, whereas Hamas says a number of have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and failed rescue missions.
More than 100 hostages, largely girls and kids, have been freed throughout a weeklong cease-fire in November in change for the discharge of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Thousands of Israelis have taken half in weekly protests calling for the discharge of the hostages and demanding new elections. But Netanyahu is beholden to far-right coalition allies who’ve threatened to convey down the federal government if he concedes an excessive amount of within the negotiations.
That may spell the top of Netanyahu’s lengthy political profession and expose him to prosecution over long-standing corruption allegations.
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Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press author Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.
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