Displaced Palestinians were reportedly killed in an overnight Israeli air strike on a building in Rafah
Israel says Hamas’s rejection of a current proposal for a Gaza truce deal with Israel shows the “damage” done by the UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would not surrender to what it called the Palestinian armed group’s “delusional demands”.
They include an end to the war and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The US called the Israeli statement “inaccurate in almost every respect”.
A state department spokesman insisted that Hamas’s response had been prepared before the Security Council vote on Monday.
“We have checked all the intelligence,” spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said. “Marwan Issa was eliminated in the strike.”
Hamas political official Izzat al-Rishq said he had “no confidence” in the Israeli claim and that the group’s military leadership would have the “final say”.
Rear Admiral Hagari described Issa as the group’s “number three” and “one of the organisers” of Hamas’s attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, when about 1,200 people were killed and 253 others taken hostage.
More than 32,400 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 81 people in the past 24 hours, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel reacted furiously after the UN Security Council adopted for the first time a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza following months of deadlock over the issue.
Fourteen council members, including the UK, voted in favour of the text, which also demanded the unconditional release of all remaining hostages and an urgent expansion of humanitarian aid deliveries.
The US – Israel’s closest ally and military supporter – criticised the resolution for failing to condemn Hamas for the 7 October attacks.
But in a sign of its increasing frustration at the way Israel is conducting the war, the US abstained, saying it fully supported the key objectives.
In protest, Israel cancelled a planned visit by an Israeli delegation to Washington to discuss its planned ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah, where more than a million people have sought shelter. The US has warned that a full-scale assault could cause a humanitarian catastrophe.
Later, Hamas put out a statement rejecting the latest truce plan put forward by mediators from the US, Qatar and Egypt at indirect talks in Doha.
The group said it was sticking to its original demands for “a permanent ceasefire that would lead to a full withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes.
On Tuesday morning, the Israeli prime minister’s office said Hamas’s stance “clearly demonstrates its utter disinterest in a negotiated deal and attests to the damage done by the UN Security Council’s resolution”.
“Israel will not address Hamas’s delusional demands,” it added. “Israel will pursue and achieve its just war objectives: Destroying Hamas’s military and governmental capacities, release of all the hostages, and ensuring Gaza will not pose a threat to the people of Israel in the future.”
The UK was one of 14 countries who voted in favour of the Security Council resolution, while the US abstained
But US state department spokesman Matthew Miller rejected the criticism.
“That statement is inaccurate in almost every respect and it is unfair to the hostages and their families,” he told reporters in Washington.
“The description of Hamas’s response that has been aired in the public is all from news reports. It’s not the actual substance of the response. I can tell you that response was prepared before the UN Security Council vote, not after it.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, told a news conference in Doha that the indirect talks “are ongoing, they have not stopped”.
“There is no timetable for negotiations, but we are continuing with our partners in mediation efforts,” he said, adding that they were currently taking place “at the level of technical teams”.
However, Israeli media and Reuters news agency cited Israeli officials as saying that Israel had recalled its negotiating team from Qatar after 10 days of talks.
Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said during a visit to Iran – which arms and funds the group – that the resolution showed Israel was experiencing “unprecedented political isolation”.
During a week-long ceasefire in late November, 105 hostages were freed in return for some 240 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The latest deal rejected by Hamas reportedly proposed a six-week pause in the fighting and the release of 40 of the hostages still being held by Hamas in exchange for as many as 800…
Read More: Israel says UN resolution damaged Gaza ceasefire talks