Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas peace proposal this Friday 15 March 2024, further reducing hopes for a permanent ceasefire.
This Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to accept a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal proposal by Hamas that was suggested a day before, a move that will only increase tensions and further diminish hopes for a permanent truce between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement.
In a statement from his office, Netanyahu said that the terms listed by Hamas in its new peace proposal “are still absurd.” It added that Israel will send a delegation to Qatar to continue efforts to reach an agreement, “once the security cabinet discusses the Israeli position.”
But refusing the peace proposal was more like an introduction for what Netanyahu really wanted to say in his Friday statement. Confirming the approval of the plan for the Israeli army to launch an operation in Rafah, Netanyahu said that “the IDF is prepared for the operation and to evacuate the [civilian] population.”
The Israeli Prime Minister claims that Rafah is Hamas’ final stronghold and to destroy the group, which is Israel’s final goal in the war, the city must be destroyed. Rafah, a densely-populated city in the southernmost of Gaza, is desperately overcrowded with over a million Palestinians, many of whom were displaced from other areas of Gaza.
No ear for listening even to Washington’s words!
Netanyahu’s firm determination to invade Rafah has sparked criticism even from Israel’s most strategic ally, the United States.
Expressing his growing frustration over the situation in Gaza, US President Biden said last week on Saturday that Netanyahu’s disregard for the “innocent lives being lost” amid his country’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip was “hurting Israel more than helping Israel.” Biden also said a potential Israeli invasion of the Gaza city of Rafa is “a red line” for him, but said he would not cut off weapons like the Iron Dome missile interceptors which protect the Israeli civilian populace from rocket attacks in the region.
A day later on Sunday, Netanyahu responded to Biden’s words and said that the US president was “wrong on both counts,” claiming both his political and military policies were supported by an “overwhelming majority” of Israelis who “support the action that we’re taking to destroy the remaining terrorist battalions of Hamas.”
What does Hamas peace proposal include?
It was on Thursday, March 14 that Hamas presented its “comprehensive” proposal to establish a permanent and lasting ceasefire in Gaza after more than five months of war with Israel.
The proposal, which was introduced and delivered to Egyptian and Qatari mediators the same day, involves a prisoner exchange deal, the cessation of hostilities, and the delivery of aid to the starving Palestinians who are currently being ethnically cleansed by the Israeli military forces.
Asserting that “the rights and concerns of our people shall remain our top priority,” Hamas said in its statement that the peace proposal also includes the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
Although Hamas didn’t publicly issued the content of the proposal, a report by Reuters on Friday further revealed more details of the peace plan, saying that it also calls for “the initial release of Israelis held captive in Gaza, including women, children, elderly, and ill prisoners in exchange for the release of 700–1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.”
