Netanyahu rejects ceasefire offer from Hamas, vows to destroy it

US says room for negotiation towards deal even as Israeli forces bomb Rafah

JERUSALEM Israeli forces on Feb. 8 bombed areas in the southern border city of Rafah, where more than half of Gaza's population is sheltering, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a proposal to end the war in the Palestinian enclave.

Mr Netanyahu rejected Hamas' latest offer for a ceasefire and return of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, but United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said there was still room for negotiation towards an agreement.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza, proposed a ceasefire of 412 months, during which all hostages would go free, Israel would withdraw its troops from Gaza and an agreement would be reached on an end to the war.

The Hamas offer, which was first reported by Reuters, was a response to an earlier proposal drawn up by US and Israeli spy chiefs and delivered to Hamas last week by Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

Calling Hamas' position "delusional", Mr Netanyahu renewed a pledge to destroy the Islamist movement, saying there was no alternative for Israel but to bring about its collapse.

"The day after is the day after Hamas. All of Hamas," he told a press conference, insisting that total victory against Hamas was the only solution to the four-monthold Gaza war.

"Continued military pressure is a necessary condition for the release of the hostages," Mr Netanyahu said.

But Mr Blinken's comments, following a meeting with Mr Netanyahu, suggested forging a truce agreement was not a lost cause.