Benjamin Netantyahu has said a hostage deal with Hamas would not stop the Israeli invasion of Rafah, as the two sides edged closer to a temporary ceasefire agreement.
The prime minister of Israel said a deal was on the table after negotiations in Paris on Saturday, but that the terror group’s demands were currently on “another planet”.
The talks began with “crazy demands” that Israel would not agree to, he told CBS on Sunday.
“It’s too soon to say if they’ve abandoned them, but if they do abandon them and get into what you call the ballpark…they’re not even in the city. They’re on another planet,” he said.
“But if they come down to a reasonable situation then, yes, we’ll have a hostage deal. I hope so.”
Ronen Bar and David Barnea, Israel’s two intelligence chiefs, and officials from the US, Egypt and Qatar held talks in Paris on Saturday. Negotiations are expected to continue next week in Qatar.
The framework agreement would reportedly involve a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of up to 40 hostages.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be released, some of whom have been convicted of killing Israelis, according to US news site Axios.
A limited number of Palestinians will be allowed to return to northern Gaza, while humanitarian aid will be significantly increased, it reported.
US, Arab and other mediators have voiced hope a deal can be reached before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan around March 10, a date that was previously given by Israel as a deadline before it invaded Rafah.
However, Mr Nethanyahu said that a hostage deal would only delay the controversial offensive, not cancel it.
“If we have a deal, it’l be delayed somewhat, but it’ll happen,” he said. “If we don’t have a deal, we’’ll do it anyway. It has to be done. Because total victory is our goal, and total victory is within reach. Not months away, weeks away once we begin the operation.”
It comes as Israel’s military proposed a plan on Monday for evacuating civilians from the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s military “presented the War Cabinet with a plan for evacuating the population from areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and with the upcoming operational plan”, a statement in Hebrew from Netayahu’s office said on Monday.
The statement did not give any details about how or where the civilians would be moved.
Israel has said four of Hamas’s 24 battalions are sheltering in Rafah from IDF forces in the north of Gaza.
The US, along with other world leaders and major aid groups, has warned that an offensive in the southern city, currently home to around 1.5 million Gazans who have fled as far south as possible, would lead to a humanitarian disaster unless it is evacuated.
Mr Biden has reportedly told Mr Netanyahu to find a “credible and executable plan” to protect Palestinian civilians.
On Sunday, the Israeli prime minister dismissed concerns about Washington’s support, arguing that “the US agrees with us on the goal of destroying Hamas and on the goal of releasing the hostages”.
“The decisions of how to do that are left with us, and with me and the elected cabinet of Israel,” he said.
He also criticised Lord Cameron, the Foreign Secretary, who last month floated the prospect of the international recognition of a Palestinian state.
“If people try to foist it on us, it will be a terrible mistake, because it would be seen as a reward for terror, after the most atrocious attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust,” he said.
“[The] people of Israel are not going to buy it, and if you want peace, you shouldn’t go that route.”
Micky Zohar, the Israeli minister of culture, told The Telegraph that the Israeli army is “ready to start the war at Rafah”.
“The terror organisation Hamas needs to decide if it agrees to a deal to release hostages before we enter there,” he said.
