Hamas set to reject Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, demands releases of more prisoners

Photo Thousands of people take part in a protest rally against the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel on 03 February 2023. The demonstrators demanded the resignation of Netanyahu, whom they accuse of mismanagement and blamed him for the Oct. 7 attack that caught Israel by surprise with deadly consequences.EFE/EPA/ABIR SULTAN

Hamas is set to reject on Sunday evening the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal proposed in Paris last week, Al-Arabiya reported, and said Hamas demanded an increase in the number of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday set out the country’s core demands for ending the war against Hamas in Gaza.

“The essential goal is, first of all, the elimination of Hamas. To achieve this goal, three things are needed,” Netanyahu told journalists ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.

“The first requirement is the collapse of Hamas’s battalions. To date, we have leveled 17 out of 24 battalions. Most of the remaining battalions are in the southern Gaza Strip and Rafah—we will also take care of those,” he said.

After the battalions are destroyed, the Israeli military will have to carry out clearance operations to prevent Hamas from rebuilding its terrorist army, “as our forces are doing with determination in very aggressive raids in the north and center of the Strip,” Netanyahu continued.

Finally, Netanyahu said, Israel will need to complete “the neutralization of the underground [tunnels], as our forces are systematically doing in Khan Yunis and in all parts of the Strip, and this requires more time.”

The Israel Defense Forces will not withdraw from Gaza before it achieves the goals of eliminating Hamas, returning all 136 hostages and ensuring that the coastal enclave never again constitutes a threat to the Jewish state, Netanyahu reiterated.

Netanyahu also called to replace the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA with other aid organizations “not tainted by support for terrorism.”

In an interview published by The Wall Street Journal earlier on Sunday, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir leveled criticism at U.S. President Joe Biden, saying Donald Trump would have been better for Israel during the current war.

Netanyahu under pressure to deliver

 Thousands of people gathered Saturday night in the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beer Sheva, among others, to demand the end of Netanyahu’s mandate and the return of the 136 hostages who remain in the Gaza Strip after 120 days of war.

In Tel Aviv, in Hostages Square, relatives of those still held in Gaza and demonstrators called for the dissolution of the government, general elections and the immediate return of the hostages held in Gaza.

The rally was held under the banner of “120 days underground,” a reference to the days since the Oct. 7 attack and the Hamas tunnels in the Palestinian enclave where the prisoners are believed to still be held. 

The Oct. 7 assault by the armed wing of Hamas resulted in the deaths of 1,139 people – mostly civilians – and the abduction of 240 others, according to the latest figures released by Israeli authorities.

Of the 136 people estimated to be still in the hands of Hamas after the brutal assault, at least 27 are suspected to have been killed by IDF , as a result of Israeli fire during the massive offensive on the Strip. 

Both in Tel Aviv and in simultaneous protests in other cities, demonstrators also demanded the resignation of Netanyahu, whom they accuse of mismanagement and blamed for the Oct. 7 attack that caught Israel by surprise with deadly consequences.

In the southern city of Beer Sheva, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Gaza, around 400 demonstrators called for “early elections” and a change of government, the Israeli publication Haaretz reported.

“We deserve a leadership with broad and united support that will give hope and begin the healing process that this people and this country so desperately need,” demanded Moshe Radman Abutbul, one of the most prominent leaders at the forefront of protests against judicial reform in recent months.

Israel and Hamas have been negotiating for days for a ceasefire that would include the release of all hostages, but so far there appears to be no agreement on the duration of the truce and the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released for each hostage, despite mediation by Qatar, the United States and Egypt.

At least 27,238 Gazans have been killed in nearly four months, most of them women and children, in addition to an estimated 8,000 bodies still buried under the rubble and 66,452 wounded, according to figures released Saturday by the Health Ministry in the Hamas  – controlled Gaza strip