Netanyahu vows to keep Hamas out of Gaza Strip

GAZA/TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Hamas would have no role in postwar Gaza, as the Palestinian group said it was reviewing a new ceasefire proposal announced by Washington.

"We will eliminate Hamas down to its very foundations," Netanyahu said in a speech in southern Israel on Wednesday. "There will not be a Hamas… We are not going back to that. It's over."

Neither Israel nor Hamas formally accepted the new ceasefire proposal announced on Tuesday by US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform.

Hamas is seeking clear guarantees that the ceasefire will eventually lead to the conflict's end, the source close to the group said. Two Israeli officials said that those details were still being worked out.

Efforts for a Gaza truce have gathered steam recently. Trump on Tuesday urged Hamas to accept a 60-day ceasefire, saying Israel had agreed to finalize such a deal.

"Israel has agreed to the necessary conditions to finalize the 60-day ceasefire, during which time we will work with all parties to end the war," Trump said, adding that Qatari and Egyptian mediators would deliver what he called a "final" offer to both sides.

Hamas said in a statement on Wednesday that it was studying the latest proposals and aiming "to reach an agreement that guarantees ending the aggression, achieving the withdrawal (of Israeli forces from Gaza) and urgently aiding our people in the Gaza Strip".

Netanyahu vowed, however, "We will free all our hostages, and we will eliminate Hamas. It will be no more", in filmed comments in the city of Ashkelon near Gaza's northern border.

'Positive signs'

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar earlier said he saw "some positive signs" amid high pressure to bring home the hostages.

Out of 251 hostages seized by Palestinian militants in October 2023,49 are still held in Gaza, including 27, the Israeli military says, are dead.

A Palestinian source familiar with the mediated negotiations told AFP, "There are no fundamental changes in the new proposal" under discussion compared to previous terms presented by the United States.

The source said the new proposal "includes a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release half of the living Israeli captives in the Gaza Strip, in exchange for Israel releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners and detainees".

Nearly 21 months of fighting have created dire humanitarian conditions for the more than 2 million people in the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza, airstrikes and shootings killed 82 Palestinians overnight, including 38 while attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid, hospitals and the health ministry said on Thursday.

Israel's military did not have an immediate comment on the strikes on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning.

Five people were killed around sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive US organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip's population, while 33 others were killed waiting for aid trucks in other locations across the Gaza Strip.

Domestically in Israel, cabinet ministers in Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting with Trump.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

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