Israeli leader spurns truce terms, vows Rafah military operation and ‘total victory’

A picture taken from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip shows smoke rising over buildings in Khan Yunis in the distance, following Israeli bombardment on Feb 5, 2024. (PHOTO / AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb 7 rejected Hamas’s proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and talked of upcoming attack on Rafah, the last lifeline of more than 1 million refugees.

Netanyahu’s remarks came hours after Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs Gaza, presented a set of terms in response to a ceasefire plan drawn up by Qatar with help of the United States and Egypt.

It included the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and the reconstruction of Gaza, which has been devastated by the Israeli strikes. Hamas also seeks a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and an end to the ongoing war, proposing a ceasefire plan consisting of three phases, each lasting 45 days.

It was reported that the framework was drawn up more than a week ago by the US and Israeli spy chiefs at a meeting in Paris with the Egyptians and Qataris.

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Yet, Netanyahu repeated his stance that Israel will continue the war until “a total victory” over Hamas. “Tonight, I came to tell you one thing: We are on the way to a total victory. Victory is within reach. It’s not a matter of years but of months,” he claimed.

According to the Israeli prime minister, since Oct 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killed or wounded 20,000 militants in Gaza, which constitute “more than half of the Hamas forces”.

“We instructed the IDF, which is now in Khan Younis, the last stronghold of Hamas, to prepare to operate in Rafah as well,” he said.

Rafah is Gaza’s southernmost city, a zone previously designated as a safe zone by the Israeli army and to which more than half of Gaza’s over 2 million population had fled. Several UN agencies have warned of catastrophes from potential Israeli attacks among heavy crowds.

Netanyahu said he told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during their meeting in Jerusalem earlier on Feb 7, that after Hamas is “eliminated”, Gaza should be demilitarized to ensure it will not pose a security threat to Israel.

“It means that Israel will stay in Gaza,” he said, again, an idea opposed by many other state leaders.

Netanyahu also repeated his call to close the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a major lifeline of Palestinian refugees.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has so far claimed the lives of 27,708 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, with thousands more feared buried under rubble.

Earlier, Qatar had described the Hamas response as “positive” overall while Egyptian security sources said the Palestinian group showed flexibility.

A source close to the negotiations said the Hamas counterproposal did not require a guarantee of a permanent cease-fire at the outset, but that an end to the conflict would have to be agreed during the truce before the final hostages are freed.

“People are optimistic, at the same time they pray that this hope turns into a real agreement that will end the war,” Yamen Hamad, who lives in a UN school in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, told Reuters.

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Saudi Arabia has told the US that its position remains that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognized on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem, and Israeli “aggression” in Gaza stops, the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement on Feb 7.

The conflict has sparked a humanitarian catastrophe that has brought shortages of the most basic necessities. Some of the hardest-hit are babies, young children and their parents, with diapers and formula either hard to find or spiking to unaffordable prices.

Meanwhile, UNICEF said aid deliveries into Gaza are not meeting the vast needs. The agency estimates 20,000 infants up to 6 months old need formula, which UNICEF has been delivering along with necessities that included diapers and cash.