In response to Hamas’s plan, Netanyahu reiterated a pledge to destroy the Islamist movement, and said Israel had no choice but to collapse it.
“Surrendering to Hamas’s misguided demands will not only not lead to the release of the hostages, it will invite yet another genocide. This would invite a grave disaster for the State of Israel that none of our citizens is willing to accept,” the Israeli leader told reporters on Wednesday.
“Continued military pressure is a necessary condition for the release of the hostages,” Netanyahu said.
On October 7, Israel launched its military offensive after Gaza’s Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in southern Israel.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says that at least 27,585 Palestinians have been confirmed dead since then and thousands of people are feared buried under the debris of the Israeli attack.
In the only ceasefire so far, which lasted a week in late November, 110 hostages were freed and Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Netanyahu, whose domestic popularity is at an all-time low, faces public pressure to continue working with international mediators to reach a settlement in Gaza.
A poll of Israelis released this week by the Israel Democracy Institute, a non-partisan think-tank, found that 51 percent of respondents believe recovering hostages should be the main goal of the war, while 36 percent said That it should overthrow Hamas.
Washington has presented the hostage-taking and ceasefire agreement as part of a plan for a comprehensive resolution of the Middle East conflict that would ultimately lead to reconciliation between Israel and Arab neighbors and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has rejected Palestinian statehood, which Saudi Arabia says requires the state to normalize relations with Israel.