Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Hamas of ‘rejecting everything’ in negotiations for a truce in the Gaza Strip

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas rejected all points of a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza which would help free the hostages.

“Hamas has rejected everything… I hope that changes because I want to get the hostages out,” Netanyahu said after the State Department said on Tuesday that it was “time to finalize” an agreement.

“We are trying to find some area to start negotiations,” the prime minister said. “They refuse… they say there is nothing to discuss.

Netanyahu faces pressure in Israel and internationally to reach a deal to allow the release of hostages held in Gaza after authorities announced over the weekend that they had recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza.

The conflict erupted on October 7 when an attack by Hamas fighters in Israel killed 1,205 people, most of them civilians, according to a count based on official Israeli figures.

Islamist fighters also kidnapped 251 people, 97 of whom are still being held in Gaza and 33 of whom have been killed, according to the Israeli army.

At several protests this week, demonstrators in Israel blamed Netanyahu for the hostages’ deaths, saying he has failed to make the concessions needed to achieve a ceasefire.

Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphia corridor

In his statement on Wednesday, Netanyahu reaffirmed that Israel must maintain control of the dividing line between Gaza and Egypt in order to exert pressure to release the hostages still in the Strip.

“If we want to free the hostages, we have to control the Philadelphia corridor,” Netanyahu said in an English-language speech from Jerusalem, saying any agreement without that premise would be a threat to the Israelis.

“We are not going to leave (the border) to return in 42 days when we know we will not be able to return,” the president justified, referring to the duration of the first phase of a possible truce agreement with Hamas.

According to Netanyahu’s logic, Only military pressure will help free the remaining hostages, he said, adding that the November truce had only happened once and Hamas “felt the pressure.”

The president also referred to the death last week of six hostages in Gaza, which shocked the country and sparked protests in the streets, and said that if Israel gave in now it would be tantamount to sending the message that “by killing more hostages, (Hamas) will get more concessions,” which he described as “immoral” madness.