"Complete victory is possible in a few months," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said and reiterated that there is no other solution for his country than the "complete destruction" of the extremist Hamas movement that rules the Gaza Strip. Voice of America reports.
He assessed that agreeing to the "bizarre demands" of Hamas would not lead to the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza. "That would act as an invitation to a new massacre," Netanyahu said in a televised briefing with journalists.
"The day after is the day after Hamas." All of Hamas," Netanyahu said, adding that he had ordered the army to "be ready for operations" in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas proposed a four-and-a-half-month ceasefire, during which they would release all hostages and Israel would withdraw its army from the Gaza Strip, reports Reuters.
The Hamas offer is a response to an earlier proposal drawn up by Israeli and US intelligence chiefs and handed to Hamas by mediators from Qatar and Egypt.
According to Reuters sources, the Hamas proposal has three phases: the first is a 45-day period during which certain groups of hostages - women, the elderly, the sick and men under 19 - would be released in exchange for Palestinian women and children held hostage by Israel. Israel would withdraw its army from the populated areas in Gaza.
The implementation of the second phase would not begin until "negotiations on the end of military operations are concluded and peace is established." In the second phase, the remaining hostages would be released, and Israel would completely withdraw from Gaza.
The remains would be exchanged in the third phase.
Blinken sees room for agreement
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, at a press conference in Tel Aviv, after talks with Israeli officials, nevertheless assessed that there is room for progress in reaching an agreement in Hamas's proposal, but that there are also some demands that cannot be fulfilled, he did not specify which ones.
"We see room for negotiation, to see if we can reach an agreement. We intend to do that," said Blinken.
Blinken also said that he had warned Netanyahu and his government about the moves and rhetoric that were raising tensions, and that he had conveyed to him that the number of civilian casualties in Gaza was too high.
