‘This is your last chance,’ Israel tells Hamas in eleventh-hour talks to save hostage deal before IDF troops storm Rafah
ISRAEL has warned Hamas has one “last chance” to secure a hostage deal or its troops will storm the southern Gazan city of Rafah.
The terror group is now reviewing the latest Israeli proposal for a ceasefire to stave off a ground offensive into the Strip’s last refuge for displaced Palestinians.
Talks between Israel and Egyptian officials sent to a broker a deal to end the months-long war ended on Friday.
A top Israeli official said Egypt seemed willing to pressure Hamas into a deal but “in the background, there are very serious intentions from Israel to move ahead in Rafah,” reports Channel 12.
The official said Israel would not agree to any delays by Hamas, particularly its leader Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to be hiding in a tunnel network beneath Rafah, using hostages as human shields.
“This is the last chance before we go into Rafah,” the source said. “It’s a case of “either a deal in the near future, or Rafah.”
Today, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the Palestinian terror group was evaluating Israel’s proposal and will soon submit its response.
He gave no details of Israel’s offer but negotiations earlier this month included a six-week ceasefire and the release of up to 40 civilian and sick Israeli hostages in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The Israeli official revealed that will only agree to all 33 living captives who meet the “humanitarian” designation – women, children, men over 50 and the sick – being freed.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under intense pressure from the families of hostages to bring them home, with near daily protests.
As the war drags on and casualties mount, there has been growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach an agreement.
The centre of this focus has been Rafah, where more than half of Gazas 2.3 million people have sought refuge after fleeing the heavy fighting elsewhere in the enclave.
Israel has been insisting for months it will launch a ground offensive into the city which borders Egypt, where it claims Hamas’s last battalions are holed up.
Despite calls for restraint from the international community including Israel’s staunchest ally, the US, Israel’s military has massed dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles close to the city and been hammering it with near-daily airstrikes.
Egypt has cautioned an offensive into Rafah could have catastrophic consequences on the humanitarian situation as well as on regional peace and security.
Hamas has said it will not back down from its demands for a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops, both of which Israel has rejected.
However, PM Netanyahu has ruled out ending the war until Hamas is completely destroyed and said that Israel will retain a security presence in Gaza afterward.
Hamas sparked the war with its attack into southern Israel on October 7, in which terrorists killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people as hostages.
Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages, but fears that only 40 could still be alive.
This week, Hamas released a propaganda video of US-Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 24, who appeared with a mutilated arm.
His parents, Jon and Rachel, slammed the terror group for releasing the “distressing” footage of their son who was taken hostage over six months ago and called for his “nightmare” to end.
They bravely added: “We love you, stay strong, survive.”
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, around two-thirds of them children and women.
The ministry said today that 32 people had been killed in Israeli strikes over the past 24 hours.
Israel has reported at least 260 of its soldiers killed since the start of ground operations in Gaza.