Israel was expected to take issue with Hamas's counter-offer, but this response is a categorical rebuke, and Israeli officials clearly see an effort by Hamas to end the war on its terms as utterly unacceptable.

"If Hamas will survive in Gaza, it's only a question of time until the next massacre."ior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told the Reuters news agency that Mr Netanyahu's remarks "are a form of political bravado", and show he intends to pursue the conflict in the region.

An Egyptian official source told the BBC that a new round of negotiations, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, is still expected to go ahead on Thursday in Cairo.

Egypt has called on all parties to show the necessary flexibility to reach a calm agreement, the source said.

And Mr Netanyahu's rejection of a "delusional" plan are in stark contrast to remarks from Qatar, which described Hamas's response as "positive".

Hamas put forward its counter-offer to a ceasefire proposal on Tuesday.

A draft of the Hamas document seen by Reuters news agency listed these terms:

  • Phase one: A 45-day pause in fighting during which all Israeli women hostages, males under 19, the elderly and sick would be exchanged for Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails. Israeli forces would withdraw from populated areas of Gaza, and the reconstruction of hospitals and refugee camps would begin.
  • Phase two: Remaining male Israeli hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners and Israeli forces leave Gaza completely.
  • Phase three: Both sides would exchange remains and bodies.

The proposed deal would also see deliveries of food and other aid to Gaza increase. By the end of the 135-day pause in fighting, Hamas said negotiations to end the war would have concluded.

Around 1,300 people were killed during the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October last year.

More than 27,700 Palestinians have been killed and at least 65,000 injured by the war launched by Israel in response, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Mr Netanyahu also confirmed on Wednesday that Israeli forces have been ordered to prepare to operate in the southern Gaza city of Rafah - where tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled in order to escape the fighting.

Expanding the conflict into Rafah would "exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare" in the city, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned.

"We are afraid of the invasion of Rafah," one displaced person at the Rafah Crossing, near the border with Egypt, told BBC Arabic.

"We sleep in fear and sit with fear. There is no food, and the weather is cold."

Mr Blinken's top priority is securing a ceasefire in Gaza. President Biden needs to calm the Middle East, not just because of the terrible risks of a continued and escalating war, but because he faces elections this year. Polls suggest he is losing votes as some Americans blame his support for Israel for the humanitarian catastrophe inside Gaza.

A renewed burst of diplomacy, involving the US, Qatar, Egypt and Israel, produced broad parameters for a deal but no details.

Hamas has delivered its terms. It wants a three-stage process lasting 135 days, which would allow a phased exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. It has put forward a long list of demands. The most significant is that by the end of that time Israel would have pulled its forces out of Gaza and the war would be over.

All that was dismissed by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after his meeting with Secretary of State Blinken.

Since the war started, Israel has defined victory as the destruction of Hamas and the safe return home of the hostages. Neither objective has yet been achieved. Mr Netanyahu said Israel would not make concessions to Hamas, and repeated his insistence that its forces were closing in on "total victory". In recent days, he has also said Israel needed to kill Hamas leaders.

Mr Blinken still believes, he said later, that a deal is possible. His challenge is to try to narrow the gap between the diametrically opposed positions of Israel and Hamas to get some sort of ceasefire.

The BBC's information is that Hamas is much less confident than it was early in the war. The ferocity of Israel's assault and the killing of so many civilians means that Gazans trapped in the war are turning against Hamas, making its leaders realise they need to try negotiation.

In Israel, for all the determined talk emerging from the prime minister and his allies, pressure is growing for a ceasefire to create an opportunity for a deal to get the hostages back.

It is not much for Mr Blinken to work with. The odds look to be against a ceasefire unless either or both sides make substantial concessions.