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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected Hamas’s proposal for a deal — that delayed the return of the hostages and demanded an end to the war — even as he sent a team to Cairo to discuss it.
“The Hamas proposal is very far from [meeting] Israel’s requirements,” he stated in a video message he delivered on Tuesday night.
“Israel cannot accept a proposal that endangers the security of our citizens and the future of our country,” Netanyahu stated.
Israel’s negotiating team, he explained, was instructed “to stand firm” on principled points regarding hostages and security.
IDF has begun a military campaign in Rafah
The IDF has also begun its military campaign in Gaza to destroy four Hamas battalions there, seizing the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing at the Egyptian border, he said, referencing the War Cabinet’s decision on Monday night to embark on that operation.
“Within hours, our forces raised the Israeli flags at the Rafah crossing and took down the Hamas flags,” he said.
Seizure of the passageway into Egypt places all the crossings into Gaza back under Israeli control.
It’s a step that both helps pressure Hamas to make a deal and advances Israel’s war aim of destroying the terror group, he stated.
“We have already proven” that military pressure on Hamas is a necessary condition for the return of our hostages,” he said.
Hamas’s decision to put a new proposal on the table Monday night was intended to halt the IDF’s entry into Rafah, Netanyahu said, adding that, this “did not happen.”
Israel’s control of the Rafah crossing, he said, damages Hamas’s governmental capabilities and blocks their ability to travel.
Yoav Gallant to IDF soldiers
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant entered the Rafah area, telling the soldiers there, “This operation will continue until we eliminate Hamas in the Rafah area and the entire Gaza strip, or until the first hostage returns.”
“We are willing to make compromises to bring back hostages, but if that option is removed, we will go on and ‘deepen’ the operation- this will happen all over the [Gaza] strip – in the south, in the center, and in the north.
“Hamas only responds to force, so we will intensify our actions, and the military pressure will result in us crushing the Hamas [terrorist] organization,” Gallant stated.
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