Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is heading for a “convincing victory” over Hamas and that the war will be over in a few months.
Hamas’s insistence on an extended pause in the war, a permanent ceasefire and a complete IDF withdrawal from the enclave has dampened optimism that the release of the prisoners is around the corner.
“We are on the way to complete victory. It is here, within reach,” Netanyahu said at the press conference and added that he predicts that the war will be over in “a few months”, not a few years.
He repeated that Israel’s goals in the war are “the destruction of Hamas, the return of the hostages and the creation of a situation so that the Gaza Strip is no longer a threat to Israel.”
He called the Israeli army’s actions so far unprecedented achievements, praising in particular what Israel has achieved against Hamas. He announced that, after the city of Khan Yunis, the focus of the Israeli army will be on the border town of Rafah.
“We continue until the end. There is no other solution than a complete victory,” says Netanyahu.
Hamas has proposed a cease-fire plan that would silence weapons in Gaza for four-and-a-half months leading to an end to the war, in response to a proposal sent last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators and backed by the United States and Israel.
According to a draft document seen by Reuters, Hamas’s counter-proposal foresees three phases lasting 45 days each.
With that proposal, his fighters would exchange the remaining Israeli hostages they captured on October 7 for Palestinian prisoners. Reconstruction of Gaza would begin, Israeli forces would withdraw completely, and bodies and remains would be exchanged.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel overnight after meeting with the leaders of mediators Qatar and Egypt, in the most serious diplomatic effort yet to end the war with the aim of achieving an extended truce. Details of Hamas’s counteroffer have not been previously released.
Under Hamas’s counter-proposal, all Israeli female hostages, men under the age of 19, the elderly and the sick would be released during the first 45-day phase in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children from Israeli prisons.
The remaining male hostages would be released during the second phase and the rest exchanged in the third phase. By the end of the third phase, Hamas expects the parties to reach an agreement to end the war.
The group, which governs Gaza, stated in an appendix to the proposal that it wants the release of 1,500 prisoners, a third of whom it wants to choose from a list of Palestinians sentenced to life by Israel.
The ceasefire would also increase the flow of food and other aid to desperate civilians in Gaza who are facing starvation and severe shortages of basic necessities.
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza after Hamas-ruled Gaza militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel on October 7. The Gaza Ministry of Health claims that at least 27,585 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in the Israeli military campaign, and thousands more are feared to be buried under the rubble, reports Reuters.
