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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas's demands for a ceasefire and said the military would continue its offensive in Gaza until it achieved “absolute victory”.
“I believe continued military pressure is a necessary condition for releasing the hostages,” Mr Netanyahu told reporters.
“We are advancing step by step to absolute victory, and that requires absolute unity.”
The rejection comes after mediators from the US, Egypt and Qatar hammered out a proposal that would have led to a three-stage truce and the phased release of hostages in return for freeing thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.
Hamas responded to the initial proposal with a counter proposal in which it called for a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and a three-stage truce of 45 days each, during which indirect negotiations between the Palestinian militant group and Israel could get under way to reach a permanent cessation of hostilities.
Mr Netanyahu called Hamas's rebuttal "delusional" and vowed to keep fighting.
At a Beirut press conference following Mr Netanyahu's remarks, senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the comments proved that the Israeli leader sought to continue conflict in the region.
Mr Hamdan, who said a Hamas delegation would head to Cairo for talks with Qatari and Egyptian officials, told reporters that his group “was ready for all options”.
Mr Netanyahu shut down any possibility of a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the return of hostages, instead doubling down on his country's war efforts.
He praised Israeli soldiers' efforts in the Gaza Strip, claiming they had killed 20,000 “terrorists”.
The truce rejection came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Israel at the end of a Middle East trip during which he had been working on securing a ceasefire.
Mr Blinken struck a slightly more optimistic tone than the Israeli Prime Minister, acknowledging that there were issues with Hamas's response but suggesting there was “space” for an eventual agreement to be reached.
“There are clearly non-starters in what Hamas put forward,” Mr Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
“But we also see space in what came back to pursue negotiations to see if we can get to an agreement.”
The secretary, who is on his fifth trip to the Middle East and seventh to Israel since October 7, has spent months trying to reel in Israel's military campaign in Gaza, while simultaneously supporting the country's right to defend itself.
He has also reiterated the need to get more aid into Gaza and the importance of creating a “clear and credible pathway to a Palestinian state” – something the Israelis appear uninterested in pursuing.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry more than 27,700 people, the majority of them civilians, have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign in the enclave following Hamas's attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 240.
Mr Netanyahu, who has long opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, said peace would only be achieved with an Israeli victory.
“They will look good if we win and they won't if we don't win,” he told reporters.
Latest from the Israel-Gaza war – in pictures
“We need to understand that everybody's just sitting on the bleachers right now, on the sidelines, our friends, our enemies, neutral countries, everybody's watching and they want to know who's going to win: Israel or Hamas,” Mr Netanyahu said.
While there appears to be a considerable gap between what Washington is pursuing and what the Israelis are willing to do, Mr Blinken has refrained from losing his patience with Israeli leaders in public.
“There has been space between the Biden administration and Netanyahu from the beginning of this effort,” said Aaron David Miller, a former State Department Middle East analyst and current senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“But … instead of accentuating the differences, the President has chosen a different pathway, which is to somehow figure out a way to work within those differences.”
The Israeli Prime Minister, who for months has been under unrelenting pressure from the families of hostages, acknowledged the pain his decision was likely to cause.
“I do understand the pain of the families of the hostages and of the fallen soldiers,” he said.
He also took aim at the US, which recently sanctioned four Israeli settlers for involvement in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, calling the punitive measures “inappropriate”.
“It harms an entire population, a sector of the settlers who are law-abiding and their sons are a part of the war,” Mr Netanyahu said.
The five pillars of Islam
Roll of honour
Who has won what so far in the West Asia Premiership season?
Western Clubs Champions League - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens - Winners: Dubai Exiles; Runners up: Jebel Ali Dragons
West Asia Premiership - Winners: Jebel Ali Dragons; Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Premiership Cup - Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Cup - Winners: Bahrain; Runners up: Dubai Exiles
West Asia Trophy - Winners: Dubai Hurricanes; Runners up: DSC Eagles
Final West Asia Premiership standings - 1. Jebel Ali Dragons; 2. Abu Dhabi Harlequins; 3. Bahrain; 4. Dubai Exiles; 5. Dubai Hurricanes; 6. DSC Eagles; 7. Abu Dhabi Saracens
Fixture (UAE Premiership final) - Friday, April 13, Al Ain – Dubai Exiles v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE%20PREMIERSHIP
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Pakistanis%20at%20the%20ILT20%20
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SPEC%20SHEET
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UAE Premiership
Results
Dubai Exiles 24-28 Jebel Ali Dragons
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 43-27 Dubai Hurricanes
Final
Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Jebel Ali Dragons, Friday, March 29, 5pm at The Sevens, Dubai
Super 30
Produced: Sajid Nadiadwala and Phantom Productions
Directed: Vikas Bahl
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Pankaj Tripathi, Aditya Srivastav, Mrinal Thakur
Rating: 3.5 /5
West Indies v India - Third ODI
India 251-4 (50 overs)
Dhoni (78*), Rahane (72), Jadhav (40)
Cummins (2-56), Bishoo (1-38)
West Indies 158 (38.1 overs)
Mohammed (40), Powell (30), Hope (24)
Ashwin (3-28), Yadav (3-41), Pandya (2-32)
India won by 93 runs
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
Kamindu Mendis bio
Full name: Pasqual Handi Kamindu Dilanka Mendis
Born: September 30, 1998
Age: 20 years and 26 days
Nationality: Sri Lankan
Major teams Sri Lanka's Under 19 team
Batting style: Left-hander
Bowling style: Right-arm off-spin and slow left-arm orthodox (that's right!)
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Hurricanes 31-31 Lions
Wellington Hurricanes:
Tries: Gibbins, Laumape, Goosen, Fifita tries, Barrett
Conversions: Barrett (4)
Penalties: Barrett
British & Irish Lions:
Tries: Seymour (2), North
Conversions: Biggar (2)
Penalties: Biggar (4)
Company%20profile
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More on animal trafficking
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Remaining fixtures
- August 29 – UAE v Saudi Arabia, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
- September 5 – Iraq v UAE, Amman, Jordan (venue TBC)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Despacito's dominance in numbers
Released: 2017
Peak chart position: No.1 in more than 47 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Lebanon
Views: 5.3 billion on YouTube
Sales: With 10 million downloads in the US, Despacito became the first Latin single to receive Diamond sales certification
Streams: 1.3 billion combined audio and video by the end of 2017, making it the biggest digital hit of the year.
Awards: 17, including Record of the Year at last year’s prestigious Latin Grammy Awards, as well as five Billboard Music Awards
Tenet
Director: Christopher Nolan
Stars: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh
Rating: 5/5
MATCH INFO
Jersey 147 (20 overs)
UAE 112 (19.2 overs)
Jersey win by 35 runs
Sun jukebox
Rufus Thomas, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) (1953)
This rip-off of Leiber/Stoller’s early rock stomper brought a lawsuit against Phillips and necessitated Presley’s premature sale to RCA.
Elvis Presley, Mystery Train (1955)
The B-side of Presley’s final single for Sun bops with a drummer-less groove.
Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Folsom Prison Blues (1955)
Originally recorded for Sun, Cash’s signature tune was performed for inmates of the titular prison 13 years later.
Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes (1956)
Within a month of Sun’s February release Elvis had his version out on RCA.
Roy Orbison, Ooby Dooby (1956)
An essential piece of irreverent juvenilia from Orbison.
Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire (1957)
Lee’s trademark anthem is one of the era’s best-remembered – and best-selling – songs.
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