Israel has rejected a new proposal to end its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip under a ceasefire deal with the Hamas resistance group, threatening to flatten Gaza City like other areas in the besieged Palestinian territory.
The Tel Aviv regime dismissed the proposal on Wednesday, hours after Hamas stressed its readiness to enter into a comprehensive deal, under which all Israeli captives would be freed, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian abductees.
The resistance group also called for an agreement that stops the Israeli genocide in Gaza, ensures the withdrawal of all occupation forces from the territory, and reopens its crossings.
The Israeli prime minister’s office rejected the Hamas statement, saying, “This is more spin by Hamas that has nothing new.”
It further said that the Gaza offensive can end immediately “on the conditions set by the [Israeli] cabinet,” which include the release of all captives, the disarmament of Hamas, and Tel Aviv’s security control over Gaza.
Similarly, Israeli minister of military affairs Israel Katz warned Hamas to either accept Israel’s conditions or see Gaza City “become like Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” which have been reduced to rubble.
Meanwhile, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is again choosing to forsake the lives” of Israeli captives and soldiers “for his own sake” rather than seeking a deal to free those still being held in the Gaza Strip.
The latest Gaza ceasefire proposal was presented by mediators and accepted by Hamas last month.
It would have seen the release of 10 living and 18 dead captives, in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and some 1,000 abducted from Gaza, in addition to a 60-day truce, during which negotiations would be held for the release of the remaining 20 captives and a permanent end to the genocidal war.
Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after Hamas carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The Israeli regime’s “security cabinet” voted on August 8 for an illegal plan to occupy Gaza City and launch a ground assault there. Since then, about 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza City alone.
Over the past nearly two years, Israel has killed at least 63,746 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 161,245 others across Gaza.