GAZA/JERUSALEM/AMMAN - Israel on Wednesday rejected Hamas' proposal for reaching a comprehensive ceasefire deal in Gaza to end the war, saying its army will continue to prepare for a major attack on Gaza City.
In a press statement released on Wednesday, Hamas reiterated its willingness to reach a "comprehensive deal" under which Israeli hostages in Gaza would be released in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
According to Hamas, the deal would also include a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, the reopening of border crossings to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and essential supplies, and the start of reconstruction efforts.
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Hamas also voiced support for the establishment of an independent national administration composed of technocrats to take immediate responsibility for managing Gaza's civil affairs.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the statement as "a spin."
In a statement issued by his office, Netanyahu said Israel would agree to end the war only if Hamas accepts full Israeli security control over the Gaza Strip, the demilitarization of Hamas and Gaza, the establishment of a non-Palestinian administration, and the release of all hostages.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz also rejected the Hamas offer, saying the army is continuing preparations "at full strength" to seize Gaza City.
Katz warned that Hamas will "soon understand that it must choose between two options: accepting Israel's terms to end the war -- first and foremost the release of all hostages and disarmament -- or seeing Gaza reduced to the fate of Rafah and Beit Hanoun."
After Hamas accepted a Qatar-brokered proposal last month, Israel neither responded nor submitted it for cabinet approval. Last week, Netanyahu said Israel would consider a comprehensive deal, but he also indicated that such an agreement could not be finalized in the near term.
Israel's nearly two-year offensive has left the Palestinian enclave in ruins and caused widespread famine. According to health authorities in Gaza, at least 63,746 people have been killed by Israeli strikes and gunfire since October 2023.
Israeli attacks
Palestinian sources said at least 46 people were killed by Israeli attacks across Gaza on Wednesday.
In Gaza City, 24 people, including women and children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes targeting residential homes, whereas seven people were killed and 20 others injured in an Israeli drone strike on a crowded market in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of the city, Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense, told Xinhua.
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Local eyewitnesses said Israeli drones also bombed a school housing displaced people and two ambulances inside the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood's main clinic, whereas Israeli ground troops reached the neighborhood too.
In central Gaza, five people were killed by Israeli army fire while trying to obtain food near an aid distribution center at the Netzarim axis, Basal said.
In southern Gaza, 10 people, including two women, were killed in Israeli attacks in Khan Younis city, Basal said.
West Bank ‘annexation’
Palestinians on Wednesday rejected Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's call to annex most of the occupied West Bank and expand settlements, saying it threatened any prospect of a future Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Smotrich's remarks were a "direct threat" to Palestinian statehood and amounted to "public incitement" against the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian rights. It said all unilateral Israeli measures to change the status quo in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, were "illegitimate and void from the outset."
The ministry urged the international community to impose sanctions to pressure Israel to halt what it called violent oppression and settlement expansion.
Hamas also condemned the plan, saying it would only bring "further challenges and confrontation," and called on Arab and Islamic states to resist Israeli "colonial policies" that violate international law and seek to erase the Palestinian cause.
Smotrich told a news conference in Jerusalem earlier on Wednesday that Israel should apply sovereignty to about 82 percent of the West Bank to block the creation of a Palestinian state. "It is time to apply Israeli sovereignty," he said, calling for "maximum territory and minimum (Palestinian) population."
Israeli media reported that Netanyahu would meet ministers, including Smotrich, on Thursday to discuss the annexation proposal. Kan TV said the move was being considered in response to European efforts to recognize a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has since built settlements there. The settlements are regarded as illegal under international law and are a key obstacle to peace talks, which have been frozen since 2014.
In Amman, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said Smotrich's remarks on West Bank "annexation" made on Wednesday flagrantly violate international law, escalate regional tensions, and challenge the global will for the two-state solution.
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"Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories," the ministry said, adding that the Israeli government's continued expansionist actions and its officials' "racist statements" incite "cycles of violence and conflict," and threaten the security and stability of the entire region.
The Israeli "occupation" is the root of the conflict and the source of regional instability, it noted, condemning Israel's "policies of forced displacement in the occupied Palestinian territories."
The only path to achieving regional security and stability lies in ending the Israeli "occupation" and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, it said.
