Hamas has rejected a Gaza ceasefire proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden, an Israeli official said on Tuesday, after receiving the Palestinian militant group's response through mediators.
"This evening, Israel received, via the mediator, the Hamas response. In its response, Hamas has rejected the proposal for a hostage release that was presented by President Biden," the Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "They [Hamas] have changed all of the main and most meaningful parameters," the official said.
That's despite a senior official of the Palestinian militant group earlier saying it accepted the UN resolution and was ready to negotiate details.
Meanwhile, discussions touching on post-war plans for Gaza will continue over the next couple of days, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Tel Aviv after talks with Israeli leaders.
Blinken met Israeli officials on Tuesday in a push to end the eight-month-old Israeli air and ground war against Hamas that has devastated Gaza, a day after Biden's proposal for a truce was approved by the UN Security Council.
Ahead of Blinken's trip, Israel and Hamas both repeated hardline positions that have scuttled previous rounds of truce mediation, while Israel has pressed on with assaults in central and southern Gaza, among the bloodiest of the war.
Biden's proposal envisages a ceasefire and phased release of hostages in exchange for Palestinians jailed in Israel, ultimately leading to a permanent end to the war.
After Blinken left for Jordan, a senior Israeli government official, who asked not to be identified, said the published proposal would enable Israel to achieve its war goals.
Israel's longstanding stance Hamas' military and governing capabilities in Gaza must be annihilated, and all hostages freed with Gaza posing no threat to Israel in the future, the official repeated.
The war began when Hamas-led Palestinian militants stormed into southern Israel from Gaza on October 7, killing more than 1200 people and seizing more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's retaliatory air and ground onslaught in Gaza has killed at least 37,164 Palestinians, the Gaza health ministry said in an update on Tuesday, and reduced most of the narrow, coastal enclave to wasteland, with malnutrition widespread.
The US is Israel's closest ally and biggest arms supplier but, along with much of the world, has become sharply critical of the huge civilian death toll in Gaza and the destruction and humanitarian calamity wrought by the Israeli offensive.
In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Palestinians reacted warily to the Security Council vote, fearing it could prove yet another ceasefire initiative that goes nowhere.
"We will believe it only when we see it," said Shaban Abdel-Raouf, 47, a displaced family of five sheltering in the central city of Deir Al-Balah, a frequent target of Israeli firepower.
"When they tell us to pack our belongings and prepare to go back to Gaza City, we will know it is true," he told Reuters via a chat app.
Post-war planning 'imperative', Blinken says
Blinken said his talks were also addressing day-after plans for Gaza, including security, governance and reconstruction of the enclave.
"We've been doing that in consultation with many partners throughout the region. Those conversations will continue... it's imperative that we have these plans."
As part of his eighth trouble-shooting trip to the Middle East since the Gaza conflict ignited, Blinken also sought steps to prevent months of border clashes between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah from escalating into a spillover war.
On Monday, Blinken had talks in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, a key mediator in the war, before proceeding to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Blinken's consultations in Israel on Tuesday included centrist former military chief Benny Gantz - who resigned from Israel's war cabinet on Sunday over what he said was Netanyahu's failure to outline a plan for ending the conflict.
Blinken, speaking later in the day at a conference in Jordan on the humanitarian response for Gaza, announced US$404 million in aid for Palestinians and called on other donors to also step up.
Al-Sisi told the gathering on the Dead Sea nations should force Israel to stop what he called the use of hunger as a weapon and remove obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Fighting continued with little respite on Tuesday as Israeli forces stepped up strikes on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, skirting the border with Egypt, a day after four soldiers were killed by a blast in a booby-trapped house claimed by Hamas.
Biden has repeatedly declared ceasefires were close over the past several months but there has been only one, week-long truce, in November, when more than 100 hostages were freed in exchange for about 240 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
Israeli forces rescued four hostages held by Hamas in a commando raid into a crowded urban refugee camp in central Gaza on Saturday during which 274 Palestinians were killed by heavy Israeli firepower, according to Gaza's health authorities.
