<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered troops to prepare to enter the overcrowded Gazan city of Rafah, even as a new round of talks aimed at securing a truce with Hamas were set to open Thursday in Cairo.</span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Netanyahu announced the order after rejecting Hamas’s response to a ceasefire proposal at the center of intense recent diplomatic efforts, though visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted on Wednesday that he still saw “space for agreement to be reached”.</div><div><br></div><div>Concerns were mounting, meanwhile, for the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have sought refuge in Rafah along the Egyptian border, with UN chief Antonio Guterres warning a military push into the city “would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare”.</div><div><br></div><div>In televised remarks Wednesday, Netanyahu said he had ordered troops to “prepare to operate” in the city and that “total victory” over Hamas was just months away.</div><div><br></div><div>Regarding the ceasefire proposal, he added: “Giving in to the bizarre demands of Hamas that we have just heard will... only invite another massacre.”</div><div><br></div><div>Blinken, who is on yet another trip to the region to press for a truce, told reporters in Tel Aviv that Hamas’s counter-proposal at least offered an opportunity “to pursue negotiations”.</div><div><br></div><div>“While there are some clear non-starters in Hamas’s response, we do think it creates space for agreement to be reached, and we will work at that relentlessly until we get there,” Blinken said, hours after meeting Netanyahu.</div><div><br></div><div>Since October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hamas ally Hezbollah.</div><div><br></div><div>International Crisis Group president Comfort Ero warned Wednesday that the hostilities around the region increased the possibility of the situation boiling over.</div><div><br></div><div>“I think the big three — Iran, Israel and the US — do not want to see escalation,” she told AFP in Washington. “But we are also seeing that every day we’re one step closer to a major miscalculation.” - AFP</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>