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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected as “delusional” Hamas’ terms for a deal to release hostages held in Gaza, warning that accepting the terms would lead to “another massacre.”
In a press conference on Wednesday evening, Netanyahu instead vowed to continue Israel’s military offensive in Gaza until “total victory” is secured, saying his country will achieve this goal “within a few months.”
“We won’t settle for less,” he said. “Surrender to Hamas’s delusional demands. . . not only will it not lead to the release of the hostages, but it will cause another massacre.”
Hamas has called for a four-and-a-half-month ceasefire, an Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and the release of at least 1,500 Palestinian prisoners as the price for the release of all hostages still in its possession after the assault on Israel on 7 October.
But Netanyahu insisted that only military pressure on Hamas would ensure the release of the approximately 130 Israelis still held by the Palestinian militant group, including the bodies of some believed dead.
He said he told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken — who had meetings with senior Israeli officials on Wednesday as part of a visit to several Middle Eastern countries — that after the fall of Hamas, “we will make sure that Gaza is demilitarized for Always”.
Blinken’s visit, during which he also met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, is part of an intense diplomatic push led by the United States and Qatar aimed at freeing the hostages and ultimately ending the war.
America’s top diplomat said after Netanyahu’s news conference that despite the Israeli prime minister’s rejection of Hamas’s proposal, he still thinks there is room to reach an agreement to release the hostages.
While there were some “clear weaknesses” in the Hamas proposal, “we think it creates space for us to reach an agreement and we will work tirelessly on this until we get there,” Blinken said at a news conference in Tel Aviv. “These things are always negotiations. . . There is invariably a back and forth.”
Hamas’ proposal came in response to a framework agreement negotiated in Paris 10 days ago by officials from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Israel, which was designed to facilitate the release of hostages and a six-week pause in hostilities.
Hamas has instead proposed a 135-day pause in fighting and a three-stage release of hostages, which it says would lead to a “complete and sustainable calm”.
After Netanyahu’s intervention, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said at a news conference in Beirut that Netanyahu’s “comments on the ceasefire proposal demonstrate right now that he intends to push forward the conflict in the region.”
“Hamas is ready to face all options,” Hamdan added, saying a delegation from Hamas’s political wing would travel to Cairo to continue ceasefire talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage during the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war, according to Israeli officials. About 110 hostages were released during a brief truce last year.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 27,500 people in Gaza, as well as displacing 1.7 million of the enclave’s 2.3 million people and making large swaths of the territory uninhabitable, according to Palestinian officials.
Blinken reiterated his concerns about the number of Palestinians killed by Israel’s offensive in Gaza, and said Israel “has an obligation to do everything possible to ensure that civilians are protected and get the assistance they need.”
He listed a series of steps Israel should take to increase the amount of humanitarian support reaching civilians in Gaza, including reopening the Erez crossing in the northern Strip, speeding up the flow of aid from Jordan and ensuring that the assistance deliveries were carried out and were not blocked “for any reason by anyone”.
Debate over a deal over the Hamas hostages has come to dominate Israeli politics, with relatives of prisoners demanding that Netanyahu’s right-wing government “pay any price” for the return of their loved ones.
Gadi Eisenkot, a member of Netanyahu’s five-person war cabinet, said last month that the release of hostages should be the main goal of the war, above the destruction of Hamas.
But Netanyahu’s far-right allies, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have threatened to withdraw from the five-party governing coalition if an “ill-advised” deal is reached.