Israel presents the only solution to the Gaza conflict 0
(Dan Tri) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again rejected the plan proposed by Hamas to end the conflict in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Sputnik).
`Surrendering to Hamas’s delusional demands not only will not bring freedom to the hostages, but will also lead to more carnage. That will cause a disaster for Israel that no Israeli citizen wants.`
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statement came after Hamas announced a proposal for a ceasefire to bring lasting peace to the Gaza Strip.
In the first phase, Hamas proposed releasing the remaining Israeli hostages from Gaza in exchange for about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel.
The next stages will involve starting reconstruction of the devastated Gaza territory and exchanging the remains of those killed in the four-month war.
The proposal also mentions an agreement to permanently end the conflict at the end of the third phase, lasting 45 days.
One of the important contents of Hamas’s proposal is that this militant group will take control of the Gaza Strip, while the previous proposal put forward by Qatari and Egyptian negotiators did not mention who would control the Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that Israel will `ensure that Gaza is permanently demilitarized` and `will act wherever and whenever in Gaza to ensure that the militant group will not rise again.`
Mr. Netanyahu affirmed that there is no other solution to the conflict in Gaza `other than absolute victory` against Palestinian militants.
`We are on the road towards complete victory. Victory is something we can achieve, it is not a matter of years or decades, but of months,` Mr. Netanyahu stated.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s emphasis on `complete victory` in Gaza has strained relations between Israel and the US, as has his rejection of a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict with the Palestinians.
While the US has not endorsed any specific cease-fire proposal, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas this week, telling the Israeli leader that the US considers `
Israeli forces have been waging war against Hamas for more than 120 days.
While Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed that Israeli forces had killed about 20,000 Hamas fighters, Gaza health authorities said about two-thirds of the 27,000 people killed in the area were women and children.
According to the Wall Street Journal, as of the end of last month, US intelligence officials believed that Israel had killed about 5,000 Hamas troops.
The Israeli prime minister denied reports that Hamas was re-establishing itself in northern Gaza, but said that completely eliminating Hamas was `a process that takes time`.
