NETANYAHU REJECTS GAZA CEASEFIRE DEAL AND SAYS NO END TO WAR WITHOUT ‘VICTORY’

Wed 07 February 2024:

Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza proposed by Hamas and rebuffed US pressure to move more quickly towards a mediated settlement to the war, saying there could be no solution to Israel’s security issues except “absolute victory” over the militant group.

The Israeli prime minister also confirmed that the Israel Defense Forces had been instructed to commence operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where the population has been swelled by hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

In a sharp rebuff to the Biden administration and the visiting US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Netanyahu said it would require months more fighting before Hamas was defeated.

Suggesting victory was “within reach”, the Israeli PM said: “There is no alternative for the military collapse [of Hamas]. There will not be a civilian collapse [of Hamas rule] without a military one.”

Israel’s Netanyahu gives news conference

Here is some of what the Israeli prime minister has been saying:

We are on the road to a decisive victory.
At the political level, we seek to eliminate Hamas and bring back all the captives.
We will shall not return [from Gaza] without victory.
The [Israeli military] has killed and injured more than 20,000 of these saboteurs. We have eliminated 18 out of 20 [Hamas] battalions.
We have directed the [Israeli military] to operate in Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas.
Now is the time for the [Israeli military] to allow safe corridors for residents.
We have no other option except decisive victory, to disallow Hamas to perpetrate any other massacres.
I have said to the US secretary of state, “Mr. Blinken, we are very close to victory”.

US pressure has not dented Netanyahu’s commitment to carry war forward

Al Jazeera senior political analyst Marwan Bishara has said that US pressure seems to have failed to dissuade Netanyahu, who said in remarks today that he intends to continue the war in Gaza.

“To give him credit, he’s at least consistent. He’s been saying from the very beginning that Israel’s going to continue with its war on Gaza until it reaches its objectives,” said Bishara.

“It’s also clear that American diplomacy and that of Secretary of State Blinken has not succeeded to dissuade him, at least publicly, for the time being, and that he continues to think that war is Israel’s only option in Gaza.”

The deadliest round of fighting in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians, levelled entire neighbourhoods, driven the vast majority of Gaza’s population from their homes and pushed a quarter of the population to starvation.

There had been mounting international concern that Israel was preparing a ground offensive in Rafah. UN officials have warned that an assault there would lead to a “large-scale loss of life” and the risk of war crimes.

Saying that no part of the Gaza Strip would be “immune” from Israel’s offensive, Netanyahu, whose poll ratings have collapsed, also ruled out any arrangement that would leave Hamas in full or partial control of Gaza.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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