Hamas dash hopes of Gaza ceasefire by repeating ‘impossible’ demands amid 40-day truce offer from Israel

HAMAS dashed hopes of a Gaza ceasefire yesterday by repeating “impossible” demands.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a 40-day truce to allow the most vulnerable of around 130 hostages to be freed.

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Benjamin Netanyahu has offered a 40-day truce to allow the most vulnerable of around 130 hostages to be freed[/caption]

AP

Netanyahu vowed to launch an assault on the last Hamas stronghold in the city of Rafah[/caption]

But Hamas terror chiefs are demanding a permanent end to hostilities, which would enable their fighters to regroup and continue to threaten the Jewish state.

Netanyahu has vowed to smash Hamas and capture or kill its leaders to prevent a repeat of the October 7 attacks which killed 1,200 and triggered the conflict.

And he has vowed to launch an assault on the last Hamas stronghold in the city of Rafah.

Hopes of a breakthrough faded yesterday as Netanyahu rejected Hamas demands and both sides blamed each other.

Hamas refused to budge on their stance that any agreement must end the war during their second day of talks with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo.

And peace prospects appeared bleak as Israeli officials refused to travel to Cairo for talks.

Israel has already reined back demands and proposed a lengthy truce, offering terms deemed “extremely generous” by Britain and the US.

Netanyahu said: “We cannot accept Hamas’s demands.

“We are not prepared to accept a situation in which the Hamas brigades come out of their bunkers, take control of Gaza again, rebuild their military infrastructure, and return to threatening the citizens of Israel.”

Last night Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza after Hamas fired rockets.