Middle East crisis: Netanyahu says Israeli soldiers will enter crowded area in Gaza

His comments appeared to dampen the guarded hopes raised on Tuesday, when US and Qatari officials said Hamas's offer reflected potential progress. But Mr. Netanyahu, a shrewd negotiator, avoided details at his news conference, leaving things somewhat murky.

In response to an offer negotiated by Qatari and Egyptian mediators, Hamas submitted a ceasefire proposal that set the stage for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the release of Hamas's remaining hostages in exchange for several thousand Palestinians held in the Gaza Strip. Israeli prisons.

Without specifying any details of the Hamas proposal, Mr. Netanyahu said that “surrender to Hamas's ridiculous demands” would restore neither the more than 100 hostages still in Gaza nor Israel's security.

When asked specifically whether Israel had formally rejected the framework, Mr Netanyahu said: “Based on what they passed on to us? From what I've seen so far, you would have said no too.

The deal proposed by Hamas would effectively end Israel's campaign in Gaza without overthrowing the group's rule there, analysts said. Mr. Netanyahu rejects any post-war settlement that leaves Hamas in power, saying it would allow the group to launch another attack on Israel similar to the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people.

At a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, a Hamas leader, Osama Hamdan, emphasized that the group's proposal was sincere, called on the United States to help stop the war, and said that a delegation of the group's leadership would go to Cairo would travel to continue talks on the offer.

Stressing the urgency of stopping the war, Mr Hamdan said: “No word or report can describe the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe and the horror of the true tragedy that the occupation of the Gaza Strip has left in its wake.”

Mr Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel's leadership had ordered the army to prepare for deployment in Rafah, on Gaza's southern border, an area where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are reportedly gathering in search of shelter, according to the United Nations . The army also planned to operate in camps in the central Gaza Strip, he added, calling the areas “the last remaining strongholds of Hamas.”

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said on Wednesday he was “particularly alarmed” by reports that the Israeli army planned to next focus on Rafah, where displaced Palestinians are “squeezed in a desperate search for safety.”

“Such an action would exponentially worsen what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences,” Mr. Guterres said, renewing his call for an immediate ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

Israeli authorities have said that 253 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage on October 7. More than 100 have been released, mainly during a weeklong ceasefire that started last November. Israeli officials say 136 people remain in Gaza, including dozens believed dead.

Fearing for the remaining hostages after four months of warfare, their families have increased their calls for the government to immediately reach a hostage deal with Hamas. Some sleep in a protest tent near the prime minister's residence in Jerusalem.

“I'm addressing you, Mr. Netanyahu, everything is in your hands. You are the one who can do that,” said Adina Moshe, 72, an Israeli hostage freed from Hamas captivity during the weeklong ceasefire. “I am terribly afraid that if you continue this line of dismantling Hamas, no more hostages will be released.”

Mr. Netanyahu said he told Mr. Blinken that after Israel overthrew Hamas, Israel would “ensure that Gaza is demilitarized forever.” Israel would continue to operate in Gaza “anywhere and at any time” to protect its security, to “ensure that terrorism does not reemerge,” he added.

Hwaida Saad reporting contributed.