Jerusalem: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss a counter proposal by Hamas for a ceasefire.
However the Israeli premier rejected the “bizarre demands” and ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah.
Hamas has given a counter proposal to quiet the guns in Gaza for four-and-a-half months, during which all prisoners would be released, Israel would withdraw its troops from the Gaza Strip and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war.
Israel’s Channel 13 cited a senior official as saying some of the demands presented by Hamas were not acceptable to Israel, without providing details. Israel has previously said it will not pull its troops out of Gaza until Hamas is wiped out.
The report quoted the unidentified official as saying Israeli authorities would debate whether to reject Hamas’s proposals outright or ask for alternative conditions.
On the other hand, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of “untold regional consequences” if the Israeli armed forces press on into the southern city, noting that the world was entering “an age of chaos”.
Before flying to Jerusalem, the US top diplomat told reporters in Doha there was “still a lot of work to be done. But we continue to believe that an agreement is possible and indeed essential, and we will continue to work relentlessly to achieve it”.
Netanyahu, however, told a televised press briefing that he had ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in Rafah and that a “total victory” by Israel over Hamas was just months away. He said accepting the Palestinian group’s “bizarre demands” for a ceasefire would not lead to the return of prinsoners. “It will only invite another massacre,” he remarked.