Benjamin Netanyahu rejects ‘still absurd’ Hamas hostage exchange demands and approves plan for IDF troops to enter Rafah

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has today slammed a Hamas proposal for another ceasefire and vowed to press on with a military operation in Rafah despite international condemnation.

Hamas earlier this week presented to mediators its latest Gaza ceasefire proposal which would see the release of Israeli hostages, including women, children, the elderly and the infirm, in exchange for the release of 700-1000 Palestinian prisoners. 

These exchanges would take place amid a six-week ceasefire in which Israeli forces would need to withdraw from ‘all cities and populated areas in the Gaza Strip’ and allow for the return of displaced Gazans ‘without restrictions’, a Hamas official told AFP. 

Netanyahu today declared such terms were ‘absurd’ just a day after his office insisted Hamas was making ‘unrealistic demands’ – though he added an Israeli delegation would nevertheless head to Qatar to continue negotiations with intermediaries.

Egypt and Qatar have been trying to narrow differences between Israel and Hamas over what a ceasefire should look like as a deepening humanitarian crisis has one quarter of the population in the battered Gaza Strip facing famine.

But Netanyahu also announced he had approved a plan for the IDF to launch a military incursion into the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Palestinian civilians are said to be sheltering. 

It comes despite much of the international community, including Israel’s chief ally the United States, warning Tel-Aviv a military operation in Rafah would lead to unconscionable civilian casualties.  

In February, Hamas received a draft proposal from Gaza truce talks in Paris which included a 40-day pause in all military operations and the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages at a ratio of 10 to one – a similar ratio to the new ceasefire proposal.

Israel also rejected that draft proposal, citing its long-held goal of not ending the war until it destroyed Hamas. Hamas insists an agreement should end the war.

Hamas said ceasefire negotiations had faltered over the past few weeks due to Netanyahu’s rejection of its demands, which include a permanent ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal from the strip, the return of the displaced in the south of the enclave to the centre and the north, and stepping up aid without restrictions. 

According to the latest proposal, Hamas said a date for a permanent ceasefire would be agreed upon after the initial exchange of hostages and prisoners as well as a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

The group said all detainees from both sides would be released in a second stage of the plan.

Egypt is also seeking to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, increase entry of aid, and allow for the displaced in the south of the enclave to move to the north, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Friday.

Sisi, speaking in a recorded message, also warned against the danger of an Israeli incursion into the border city of Rafah.

Meanwhile, Australia said it would resume funding to the United Nations’ main Palestinian relief agency on Friday, almost two months after pausing ties over allegations that some of the agency’s employees participated in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Australia had consulted with UNRWA and other donors and was satisfied the aid agency was not a terror organisation, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said. 

New and additional safeguards would protect aid money, and A$6 million ($3.9 million) in paused funding would be released immediately, she said.

‘We have children and families that are starving and we have a capacity along with the international community to assist them,’ Wong said at a news conference.

‘We know that UNRWA is central and vital to delivering that assistance.’

Australia along with more than a dozen countries, suspended funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in January after Israel accused 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly October 7 Hamas attack.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7 that left 1,200 people dead and 253 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s air, sea and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 31,000 people and wounded over 71,500, according to Gaza health authorities.

The conflict has spread to other parts of the volatile Middle East. Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah has frequently exchanged fire with Israel along the border.

Pro-Iranian armed groups in Iraq have attacked U.S. forces in the country and Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis have attacked shipping lanes in and around the Red Sea to show their solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

Late on Thursday, Hamas said it presented to mediators a comprehensive vision of a truce based on stopping what it calls Israeli aggression against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, providing relief and aid the return of displaced Gazans to their homes, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.

With the war now in its sixth month, the U.N. has warned that at least 576,000 people in Gaza are on the brink of famine and global pressure has been growing on Israel to allow more access for aid.