Netanyahu rejects Hamas’ Gaza cease-fire demands, says troops will push into Rafah

Tel Aviv, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Hamas calls for for a cease-fire and vowed to press forward with Israel’s navy offensive in Gaza till reaching what he referred to as “absolute victory.” He additionally mentioned — regardless of myriad warnings from humanitarian companies of attainable dire penalties — that he had ordered the Israel Protection Forces to organize to push into the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah.

Many of the roughly 1.5 million Palestinians displaced from their houses by the conflict in Gaza have packed into the southern city close to the border with Egypt. Many reside in squalid tent camps and overflowing U.N.-run shelters.

Netanyahu made the feedback Wednesday shortly after assembly visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has been touring the area in hopes of securing a cease-fire settlement.

The U.S. has been pushing Israel to regulate its ways in Gaza amid hovering deaths. Officers within the Hamas-run enclave say the demise toll is nearing 28,000. Lots of these casualties have been girls and kids, however Hamas officers don’t differentiate between combatants and civilians of their statistics.

“We’re on the best way to an absolute victory,” Netanyahu mentioned, including that the IDF’s operation in Gaza would final months, not years.

“There is no such thing as a different resolution,” the Israeli chief mentioned, including that agreeing to the phrases proposed by Hamas, which has lengthy been designated as a terror group by Israel, Hamas and the European Union, would “invite one other bloodbath.”

Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 terror assault on southern Israel, which noticed the militants kill about 1,200 individuals and take greater than 200 others hostage, sparked the present conflict within the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which Hamas has managed for nearly twenty years.

He dominated out any association that leaves Hamas in full or partial management of Gaza, which the group’s newest proposal would successfully have finished, in response to full particulars of it printed by a media outlet intently related to the group’s Lebanese allies, Hezbollah.

Netanyahu additionally mentioned Israel was the “solely energy” able to guaranteeing safety in the long run.

The Israeli premier additionally referred to as for the alternative of the U.N. company for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

Blinken was scheduled to offer a information convention later Wednesday.