Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday, April 30, that the military would launch a ground offensive on Gaza’s far-southern Rafah city “with or without” a truce deal being negotiated with Hamas. “The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question,” said Netanyahu, who has vowed to destroy Hamas over their October 7 attack that sparked the deadliest ever Gaza war.
“We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there with or without a deal, in order to achieve the total victory,” he told families of some of the hostages still being held in Gaza, his office said.
Netanyahu’s comments came as Hamas was weighing the latest plan for a truce proposed in Cairo talks with US, Egyptian and Qatari mediators that had raised cautious hopes for an end to the fighting. The hawkish premier issued the warning despite strong concerns raised by top ally Washington and hours before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Israel on his latest Middle East crisis tour.
The Palestinian militant group said it was considering a plan for a 40-day ceasefire and the exchange of scores of hostages for larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners. The Islamist group, whose envoys returned from Cairo talks to their base in Qatar, would “discuss the ideas and the proposal,” a Hamas source told Agence France-Presse, adding that “we are keen to respond as quickly as possible.”
‘Only obstacle’
Washington has heightened pressure on all sides to reach a ceasefire – a message pushed by Blinken, who was on his seventh regional tour since the war broke out. Blinken, who arrived in Jordan from Saudi Arabia and was later heading to Israel for talks with Netanyahu and other officials on Wednesday, described Israel’s offer as “extraordinarily generous.”
Washington has strongly backed its ally but also pressured it to refrain from a ground invasion of Rafah, which is packed with displaced civilians, and to do more to protect the territory’s 2.4 million people.
President Joe Biden, facing rising fury on US university campuses, urged the Egyptian and Qatari leaders Monday “to exert all efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.” Biden called this “the only obstacle” to securing relief for Gaza’s civilians, who the UN has warned are on the brink of famine.
China meanwhile said that rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah had met in Beijing recently for “talks on promoting intra-Palestinian reconciliation.” Hamas seized sole control of Gaza in 2007, while Fatah maintains partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank through the Palestinian Authority. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said “the two sides fully expressed their political will to achieve reconciliation”, without saying when they had met.