Key Points
- Israel has rejected Hamas’ proposal of a 4.5 month ceasefire.
- It was proposed that all remaining Hamas-held hostages would be released over that period.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas’ demands “would invite another massacre”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says “total victory” in Gaza is within reach, rejecting the latest offer from Hamas for a ceasefire to ensure the return of hostages still held in the besieged enclave.
Netanyahu on Wednesday renewed a pledge to destroy the Palestinian Islamist movement, saying there was no alternative for Israel but bringing about the collapse of Hamas.
“Surrendering to Hamas’s delusional demands that we heard now not only won’t lead to freeing the captives, it will just invite another massacre,” Netanyahu said.
“We are on the way to an absolute victory,” he added.
“There is no other solution.”
A senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, described Netanyahu’s remarks as “political bravado” that showed the Israeli leader’s intention to continue conflict in the region.
Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, said a Hamas delegation led by senior Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya would travel on Thursday to Cairo to pursue ceasefire talks with mediators Egypt and Qatar. Hamdan called on Palestinian armed factions to continue fighting.
What was Hamas’ ceasefire proposal?
Hamas had proposed a Gaza ceasefire of 4.5 months, during which all hostages would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war.
The Hamas offer, the contents of which were first reported by the Reuters news agency, is a response to an earlier proposal drawn up by United States and Israeli spy chiefs and delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the offer with Netanyahu after arriving in Israel following talks with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt, the countries that have acted as mediators. Blinken later met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Israel began its military offensive after militants from Hamas-ruled Gaza killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on 7 October.
Gaza’s health ministry says at least 27,585 Palestinians have been confirmed killed, with thousands more feared buried under rubble. There has been only one truce so far, lasting just a week at the end of November.
Destroyed houses in Al Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip, following Israeli air strikes. More than 27,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Source: EPA / MOHAMMED SABER
Israel has previously said it would not pull its troops out of Gaza or end the war until Hamas was wiped out.
But sources described Hamas as taking a new approach to its longstanding demand to end the war, now proposing this as an issue to be resolved in future talks rather than a condition for the truce.
A source close to the negotiations said the Hamas counterproposal did not require a guarantee of a permanent ceasefire at the outset, but that an end to the war would have to be agreed before final hostages were freed.
According to the offer document seen by Reuters and confirmed by sources, during the first 45-day phase all Israeli women hostages, males under 19 and the old and sick would be freed, in exchange for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails. Israel would withdraw troops from Gaza’s populated areas.
Implementation of the second phase would not begin until the sides conclude “indirect talks over the requirements needed to end the mutual military operations and return to complete calm”.
The second phase would include the release of remaining male hostages and full Israeli withdrawal from all of Gaza. The remains of the dead would be exchanged during the third phase.
