Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected what he said were unacceptable terms presented by Hamas for a new hostage deal as Israel’s ground forces advanced deeper into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign co-chairman portrayed Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace in the Middle East and suggested he was wrong to reject calls by the US and Arab countries for movement toward a Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, Israel has reportedly given Hamas a proposal through Qatari and Egyptian mediators that includes up to two months of a pause in the fighting as part of a multiphase deal, according to the Axios news website on Monday. The deal would include the release of all remaining hostages held in Gaza, the report added, citing two Israeli officials. While the proposal doesn’t include an agreement to end the war, it is the longest period of ceasefire that Israel has offered Hamas since the start of the war.

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is seeding hate, says EU’s Borrell

Israel’s bombardment of Gaza was failing to root out Hamas and was “seeding hate” for years to come, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said.

Israel has been striking the Hamas-run enclave after the group carried out a deadly incursion on 7 October and took scores of people hostage. Netanyahu has come under mounting international pressure to end the operations against Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US and EU, and for rebuffing US and Arab-backed initiatives for post-war Gaza. 

Instead of destroying Hamas, Israel was “seeding the hate for generations” with its retaliatory strikes on Gaza, Josep Borrell told reporters on Monday ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. He urged parties to start thinking more concretely about a two-state peace process.

Israel, which has said that the only way to guarantee the security of its citizens is to eliminate Hamas, says it accomplished much of what it set out to do. It has killed some of the group’s key leaders and says it has degraded the group in northern Gaza, although fighting continues.

Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz, who travelled to Brussels for the meeting, said he was there to discuss efforts to free hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and how to dismantle the group.

Netanyahu said last week Israel would insist on keeping security control of both Gaza and the West Bank, which Palestinians claim as a future state. Those comments prompted a rebuke from the US State Department, while UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC on Sunday it was “very disappointing”.

The sentiments were echoed by EU foreign ministers on Monday ahead of a meeting in Brussels.

Luxembourg’s foreign minister, Xavier Bettel, said if the Israelis don’t think a two-state solution is an answer, then “they’re very isolated”.

“The support for Israel is at risk to shrink very quickly to a very low level,” Bettel said, adding it was in their interest to come to the table. 

Asked about the Israeli government’s rejection of a Palestinian state, Borrell stressed the solution had been approved by the United Nations and the international community.

“So they don’t agree, we have to discuss,” Borrell said. “Which are the other solutions they have in mind? To make all the Palestinians leave? To kill them?”

Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 240 others in its 7 October incursion into southern Israel. Israel then launched strikes and a ground invasion of Gaza, where authorities in the Hamas-run territory say more than 25,000 people have been killed. In mid-December, the World Bank estimated that Israeli bombardment had damaged or destroyed more than 60% of Gaza’s infrastructure.

Netanyahu rejects Hamas’ terms for hostage release 

Netanyahu rejected what he said were unacceptable terms presented by Hamas for a new hostage deal.

“Hamas is demanding, in exchange for the release of our hostages, the end of the war, the withdrawal of our forces from Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. He said Hamas was also demanding a release of militants who killed some 1,200 people in October. Israel has said it aims to destroy Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the US and EU.  

“Were we to agree to this, our soldiers would have fallen in vain and the next October 7 would be only a question of time,” he said. Israel is obliged to return all the hostages home but “the conditions being proposed by Hamas underscore a simple point — there is no substitute for victory. Only total victory will ensure the elimination of Hamas and the return of all our hostages,” he said. 

Netanyahu told relatives of the hostages earlier on Tuesday that there was no genuine Hamas proposal on the table. 

“On the other hand, there is our initiative, which I will not detail,” Netanyahu said.

Public and political pressure to bring the hostages back home has been rapidly increasing over the past several days.

Over the weekend family members demonstrated in front of Netanyahu’s private residence calling him to “stop the execution” of the remaining hostages. On Sunday, they set up an encampment in front of his official residence in Jerusalem.

Read more: Biden ally says Netanyahu isn’t aligned with Middle East peace quest

Gadi Eisenkot, a former chief of general staff in the Israeli army and a member of the war Cabinet, said in an interview last week that “it is impossible to return the hostages alive in the near future without a deal”.

“And anyone who says different is lying to the public,” said Eisenkot, a political rival of Netanyahu who joined the government after the 7 October attacks.

Officially, 132 hostages remain in Gaza, though 27 are known to be dead. Of them, 121 are Israeli, and another 11 are foreign nationals from Thailand, Nepal, Tanzania, France and Mexico. Nineteen are women. 

Israel deepens offensive into southern Gaza

Israel’s ground forces advanced deeper into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to the army, with intense fighting reported in an area where tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering.

The widened offensive came as Israel faced mounting international pressure to wind down the fighting and secure a diplomatic agreement for a cease-fire and the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas. Israel has said it will continue its military campaign until Hamas is destroyed and all of its hostages seized on 7 October are freed.

The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it was advancing to the west of Khan Younis. The Hamas-run health ministry reported on Tuesday that about 50 Palestinians had been killed in the bombardment of the city, most in the al-Mawassi area. About 30,000 displaced Gazans have been living in tents and makeshift shelters in al-Mawassi, which Israel declared a safe humanitarian zone.

Israel said its troops were operating in accordance with international law. It said units were “working to dismantle the Hamas military framework while staying aware of the complexity of the task, given that Hamas systematically embeds itself in sites such as hospitals and schools”.

The shelling at al-Mawassi forced people to flee further south toward Rafah. Videos and social media images showed scores of residents fleeing in vehicles, animal-drawn carts and on foot.

The Hamas-run government media offices said that five shelters inside university campuses and schools in the area were hit by shells and shots fired from guns mounted on quadcopters flying in the area. The advancement of the troops and the accompanying bombing has further restricted access to the main hospital in the city, the health ministry said.

Khan Younis is the birthplace and residence of Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar. Israel has been gradually pushing into the sprawling city.

Biden ally says Netanyahu isn’t aligned with Middle East peace quest

President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign co-chair portrayed Netanyahu as an obstacle to peace in the Middle East and suggested he was wrong to reject calls by the US and Arab countries for movement toward a Palestinian state.

“This wouldn’t be the first time that there is some tension between Prime Minister Netanyahu, his personal, political goals and aims, and the challenges of crafting a positive, peaceful path forward for the Israeli and Palestinian people,” Chris Coons, a US senator from Delaware who’s a close ally of Biden, said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Coons’ comments also hint at tension between Biden and Netanyahu, who spoke on Friday for the first time in almost four weeks. A day earlier, Netanyahu dismissed US calls to position the Palestinian Authority for eventual control of postwar Gaza, saying an Israeli leader must be able to oppose even “the closest of friends”. 

Netanyahu’s comments vowing to maintain Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the foreseeable future after the war prompted a rebuke by the US State Department.  

“This is a moment where the Israeli public needs to choose what is the best path forward,” Coons said. “And I know it would be a significant step for them to accept that the creation of a Palestinian state is the right path forward.” DM

Read more in Daily Maverick: Israel-Palestine War