Gaza truce not likely – mediator
HOPE FADES: ISRAEL REJECTS CALLS NOT TO HIT RAFAH
Netanyahu also spurns pressure from West for recognition of a Palestinian state.
Mediator Qatar acknowledged on Saturday that prospects for a new pause in Israel’s war with Hamas were “not really promising” as Israel rejected appeals to hold off on a threatened assault on the Gaza city of Rafah.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that foreign countries calling on Israel to spare the city, where 1.4 million Palestinians have sought refuge, were effectively telling the country to “lose the war”. Truce efforts intensified this week as Qatar and fellow mediators Egypt and the United States scrambled to secure a ceasefire before Israeli troops enter Rafah, the last major population centre in Gaza untouched by Israeli ground troops.
Despite a direct appeal from US President Joe Biden last week week, Netanyahu insisted the operation would go ahead regardless of whether a hostage release deal was agreed with Hamas. “Even if we achieve it, we will enter Rafah,” he said at a televised news conference on Saturday.
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who met with negotiators from Israel and Hamas this week, said efforts for a ceasefire had been complicated by the insistence of “a lot of countries” that any new truce involve further releases of hostages.
“The pattern in the last few days is not really very promising,” he said at the Munich Security Conference. His assessment came as Hamas threatened to suspend its involvement in talks unless relief supplies are brought into the north, where aid agencies have warned of looming famine.
Earlier, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh reiterated their demands, which Netanyahu called “ludicrous”. They include a complete pause in fighting, the release of Hamas prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
Netanyahu also rejected pressure from some Western governments for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. “After the massacre of 7 October, there can be no greater reward for terrorism than that,” he said.
Thousands of Israelis protested in Tel Aviv, calling for an immediate election and accusing the government of abandoning hostages. “I beg the prime minister and the Cabinet to enter the negotiations,” said former hostage Sharon Aloni-Cunio, whose husband remains in Gaza.