It was not clear whether Netanyahu was referring to Hamas' response to the broad hostage release framework negotiated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt last month in Paris, and delivered to Qatar on Tuesday, or to the framework itself. “By surrendering to Hamas’ demands, it will only lead to another massacre,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel would continue its military campaign in southern Gaza.
“It is clear that there are things that Hamas brought back that do not deserve attention at all, and I assume that is what the prime minister was referring to,” Blinken said. But at the same time, he added: “We see in what was sent into space a continuation of the quest to reach an agreement… and we are determined to pursue it.”
US officials expect Hamas and Israel to continue to take a public stance against the proposal as a negotiating tactic, but Netanyahu pledged Continuing military operations for several months would directly conflict with Blinken's goals of reducing hostilities and allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
On his fifth trip to the region since the war between Israel and Hamas began, Blinken also stopped in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the West Bank for discussions about what will happen when the war ends, including a firm path and timetable for establishing a Palestinian state. . But his primary goal in Israel, American officials said, was to achieve progress on the hostage release proposal and address the worsening humanitarian crisis inside Gaza.
The tension behind the visit, in internal Israeli politics and relations with the United States, was reflected in Netanyahu’s hijacking of a private meeting that was scheduled to take place between Blinken and Israeli military commander Herzi Halevy, and instead inserted himself into a group meeting with security leaders.
Under the framework agreement presented by negotiators to Hamas and Israel, the initial cessation of fighting will last for six weeks and lead to the release of all civilian hostages held by the armed group in Gaza. In return, Israel will release three Palestinian prisoners for every hostage released by Hamas, and take steps to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza.
In a press conference with Blinken on Tuesday in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani described Hamas’ response as “positive” and said it had been passed on to Israel.
The pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar published the text of Hamas' response on Wednesday and was verified to The Washington Post by several Hamas officials. Following the basic outlines of the framework, it envisions three phases, each lasting 45 days, involving waves of release of Israeli hostages and bodies of the dead. During this period, Israeli forces will “reposition” away from populated areas in Gaza.
In return, Israel will release Palestinian prisoners. Hamas' response requires the release of all Palestinian women, children, men over the age of 50, and sick prisoners in Israeli prisons, in addition to 1,500 male Palestinian prisoners, 500 of whom Hamas will choose from among those serving life or long-term prison sentences.
Hamas' response had other requirements: that at least 500 trucks of humanitarian aid enter Gaza every day, compared to the current rate of 100 to 200 trucks; Displaced Gazans can return to their homes and move around the Strip freely; Israel will allow more wounded Palestinians to seek medical treatment abroad; Roads must be repaired and rubble resulting from Israeli attacks removed; Housing and hospitals must be repaired and shelters built. The Hamas document also calls for an end to all “incursions” and “attacks” carried out by Israeli settlers against Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the complex known to Israelis as the “Temple Mount.”
The second phase will see Hamas release all male Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, on the condition that “Israeli forces withdraw outside the borders of all areas” of Gaza.
During the final phase envisioned by Hamas, which will last 45 days, it will return the remains of dead Israelis in exchange for the bodies of Palestinians detained by Israel.
About 100 hostages are believed to be still alive, and Israeli officials say Hamas is holding at least 31 bodies. The “vast majority” of those killed were killed during an October 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel, according to an IDF spokesman. During a previous cessation of fighting in November, 105 hostages – 81 Israelis and 24 foreigners – were released in exchange for the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said in a press conference in Beirut on Wednesday that a Hamas delegation will head to Cairo on Thursday for talks at the invitation of Egypt and Qatar. Netanyahu was accused of misleading the Israeli public and seeking to prolong the war.
Hamdan said in an interview: “We presented a realistic vision, a logical vision, and I believe that this vision will be the basis of dialogue through mediators.”
The Israeli government is under intense pressure from relatives of the hostages to return their loved ones home. “Netanyahu, if you continue your policy of eliminating Hamas, I am afraid there will be no hostages [left] “To the rescue,” Adina Moshe, a hostage freed during the pause in November, said after the prime minister’s speech on Wednesday.
But other families supported calls by far-right officials to continue fighting until Hamas is eliminated from the Gaza Strip. Zvika Mor, the father of Eitan Mor, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival on October 7, urged Israel to move forward. “You cannot achieve peace now,” he said in a press conference on Wednesday.
Miki Zohar, a minister from Netanyahu's Likud party, told The Washington Post this week that Netanyahu would not have the legislative majority in the Knesset to approve a deal that would require “the release of thousands of terrorists with blood on their hands, in exchange for their release.” Part of the hostages and a long-term cessation of fighting.”
He said Israel would ask for more “acceptable conditions: a month or a month and a half of stopping the fighting, because we have no intention of stopping the fighting, and a more reasonable number of terrorists – a few hundred, for example.”
The Israeli military campaign in Gaza led to the deaths of more than 27,000 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the Israeli army had received instructions to launch operations in Rafah, which he described as “one of Hamas's last strongholds.” He said civilians there would be given “safe passage,” but it was unclear where they could go.
More than 1.2 million Palestinians are crowded into the city located in southern Gaza along the border with Egypt, most of whom have been displaced several times due to fighting in the far north. Many are living in unsanitary conditions in tents or makeshift buildings, struggling to find food or receive medical treatment. Aid groups have warned that famine is looming. Israel intensified its bombing of Rafah this week, with five attacks killing 12 people in the area on Tuesday alone.
In response to a question about the Israeli military plans for Rafah alone Blinken, a transit point for humanitarian aid entering Gaza from Egypt, said: “Israel bears responsibility, and has an obligation, to ensure that civilians are protected… and that they receive the aid they need.”
He said: “Any military operation must take civilians into account first and foremost, and this is especially true in the case of Rafah.”
Blinken said he informed Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that “the daily losses that this military operation continues to inflict on Palestinian civilians remain very high.” He said he identified “key steps” that Israel should take to increase humanitarian aid, including reopening roads leading to northern Gaza, strengthening the prevention of military clashes with humanitarian aid providers, providing an additional corridor through the Erez crossing from Israel in the far north of Gaza, and accelerating Aid imports from Gaza. Neighboring Jordan.
“We have made clear that Israel is fully justified in confronting Hamas and other terrorist organizations,” Blinken said, and that the United States “has done more than any other country to support Israel’s right to ensure” that the October 7 Hamas attack /October, he will implement it. It left about 1,200 Israelis dead and sparked a war that “will never happen again.”
He said that Hamas “dehumanized” the hostages it took in that attack. “But this cannot serve as a license to dehumanize others when the people of Gaza had nothing to do with the attacks. … We cannot and must not lose sight of our common humanity.
Blinken said he expressed “deep concerns” about recent actions by Israeli government officials, including irresponsible rhetoric that “inflames tensions.”
Senior UN officials, as well as many governments around the world, have called for a ceasefire, warning that the catastrophic humanitarian situation is getting worse by the day. Tor Wennesland, the top UN official for the Middle East peace process, told reporters in New York on Wednesday that an Israeli military operation in Rafah would be “absolutely disastrous” for civilians there, as well as for the flow of humanitarian aid.
Israeli authorities dropped leaflets on Rafah on Monday warning that they planned to bomb the area, without giving instructions on where civilians should evacuate.
Also shine with Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
The Biden administration is under significant domestic and international pressure to reach a ceasefire, even as it retaliates against Iranian proxies for attacks across the region in response to Israel's war in Gaza.
The United States hopes that the initial pause will pave the way for a more durable solution to the conflict. Washington is pushing for this settlement to include a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which was a foreign policy priority for the Biden administration before the October 7 attacks.
But Riyadh made clear on Wednesday that it would not begin diplomatic relations with Israel unless “all Israeli occupation forces withdraw from the Gaza Strip” and a viable Palestinian state is established.
“The Kingdom communicated its firm position to the American administration that there will be no diplomatic relations with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state is recognized on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.” statement According to the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Parker reported from Cairo, George from Dubai, Soroka from Tel Aviv, and De Jong from Washington. Hazem Baalousha in Amman, Jordan, Sarah Daadoush in Beirut, Shira Rubin in Tel Aviv, and Heba Mahfouz in Cairo contributed to this report.
