TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Hamas’s terms for a cease-fire and hostage-release agreement, calling them “delusional” and leveling harsh criticism of any arrangement that leaves the terrorist group in full or partial control of Gaza after the war.

The Israeli premier vowed to press ahead with the war against Hamas, now in its fifth month, until achieving “absolute victory.”

Mr. Netanyahu made the comments shortly after meeting Secretary of State Blinken, who has been traveling the region in hopes of securing a cease-fire agreement.

“Surrendering to Hamas’s delusional demands that we heard now not only won’t lead to freeing the captives, it will just invite another massacre,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a nationally televised evening news conference. “We are on the way to an absolute victory,” he said, adding that the operation would last months, not years, and asserting: “There is no other solution.”

Mr. Netanyahu ruled out any arrangement that leaves Hamas in control of any part of Gaza. He also said that Israel is the “only power” capable of guaranteeing security in the long term.

Earlier, Mr. Blinken said that “a lot of work” remains to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas on terms for any deal. Hamas laid out a detailed, three-phase plan to unfold over the course of four and a half months, responding to a proposal drawn up by America, Israel, Qatar and Egypt. The plan stipulates that all hostages would be released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, including senior terrorists, and an end to the war.

Israel has made destroying Hamas’s governing and military abilities one of its war aims, and Hamas’ proposal would effectively leave it in power in Gaza and allow it to rebuild its military capabilities. President Biden said Hamas’s demands are “a little over the top” but that negotiations will continue.

Iran-backed terrorist groups across the region have conducted attacks, mostly on American and Israeli targets, in solidarity with the Palestinians, drawing reprisals as the risk of a wider conflict grows.

Israel is deeply shaken by the October 7 attack in which Hamas terrorists burst through the country’s vaunted defenses and rampaged across southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting some 250, around half of whom remain in captivity in Gaza.

Mr. Blinken, who is on his fifth visit to the region since the war broke out, is trying to advance the cease-fire talks while pushing for a larger postwar settlement in which Saudi Arabia would normalize relations with Israel in return for a “clear, credible, time-bound path to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Yet the democratically elected Mr. Netanyahu is opposed to Palestinian statehood, and his hawkish governing coalition could collapse if he is seen as making too many concessions.

“There’s a lot of work to be done, but we are very much focused on doing that work,” Mr. Blinken told Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog.

Hamas’s response to the cease-fire proposal was published in Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is close to the powerful Hezbollah terrorist group. A Hamas official and two Egyptian officials confirmed its authenticity. More than 100 hostages, mostly women and children, were freed during a weeklong cease-fire in November in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Thousands of Israelis have taken part in weekly protests calling for the release of the hostages and demanding new elections. Yet Mr. Netanyahu is beholden to far-right coalition allies who have threatened to bring down the government if he concedes too much in the negotiations.