Israel Rejects Cease-Fire Plan for Gaza Embraced by Hamas

(Bloomberg News/TNS) — The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas said it had agreed to a cease-fire proposal for the Gaza Strip, but Israel’s war Cabinet unanimously rejected it as “far from Israel’s necessary demands,” dashing hopes for an immediate pause in the fighting.

Israel vowed to continue “its operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas” but also said it will send a delegation to meet with mediators “to exhaust the possibility of reaching an agreement.” In a statement later Monday, the Israel Defense Forces announced fresh airstrikes against Hamas targets in the Rafah area.

The Israeli response followed hours after Hamas had posted a statement saying that Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political office, had accepted a Qatari and Egyptian cease-fire proposal. Questions were raised almost immediately about the details, with both U.S. and Israeli officials saying they were studying the Hamas response.

Hamas and Israel have been negotiating via Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. on an agreement that would see the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians detained in Israeli jails. It would also include a temporary pause in fighting.

Benny Gantz, a member of the war Cabinet in Israel, said in a post that the proposal offered by Hamas “does not correspond to the dialogue that has taken place so far with the mediators and has significant gaps.” He said an Israeli delegation nonetheless will meet with negotiators in Cairo.

Those talks had stalled over the weekend over the Iran-backed terrorist group’s insistence that any truce be permanent, leading to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Israel has said it must eliminate Hamas before ending the war.

Tensions also increased after Hamas killed four Israeli soldiers with a rocket barrage on Sunday on the border crossing of Kerem Shalom, one of its worst missile attacks in weeks.

Israel has insisted on a phased approach to any cease-fire, saying Hamas must first commit to the release of about three dozen hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

At the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel will go ahead with its invasion of Rafah, in Gaza’s south, where Israeli forces say Hamas still holds sway. Earlier Monday, Israel told some civilians to move out of parts of Rafah, a possible prelude to a long-expected attack on the city where more than a million Palestinians have sought shelter from the war.

The Israel Defense Forces “will act with extreme force against terrorist organizations in your areas of residence,” a spokesman said on social media on Monday morning. He urged residents of eastern Rafah to go north to an “expanded humanitarian area” near Khan Younis, another city in Gaza.

Large numbers of people started leaving Rafah in cars, on foot and in horse-drawn carriages. A spokesman for the Israeli military said its Air Force struck 50 targets in Rafah on Monday.

President Joe Biden has repeatedly warned that Israel must not launch such an attack without protecting civilians.

Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Biden had again made clear the U.S. view about “operations in Rafah that could potentially put more than a million innocent people at greater risk.”