An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden to wind down the Gaza war, although he described it as flawed and requiring significant adjustments. In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy advisor, said, “Biden’s proposal is a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal, but we dearly want all the hostages released.” “There are many details to be worked out,” he added, emphasizing that Israel’s conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization,” remain unchanged.
Quick Read
- An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel accepted a U.S. plan to wind down the Gaza war, but described it as flawed.
- Ophir Falk, Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy advisor, stated that while the deal was not ideal, Israel prioritized the release of hostages and the destruction of Hamas.
- U.S. President Joe Biden outlined a three-phase plan including a truce, the return of some hostages, and negotiations for a permanent end to hostilities.
- The plan implies Hamas’ ongoing role in arrangements mediated by Egypt and Qatar, conflicting with Israel’s objective to eliminate Hamas.
- Previous ceasefire proposals have collapsed, with Israel’s consistent demand to destroy Hamas before a permanent ceasefire.
- Biden’s plan aims for a future in Gaza without Hamas, but details on achieving this remain unclear.
- Netanyahu’s coalition faces internal pressure, with far-right partners opposing any deal sparing Hamas, while centrist Benny Gantz supports considering the deal.
- Hamas provisionally welcomed the initiative but demands an end to the Gaza offensive and withdrawal of Israeli forces.
- Israel remains firm that no permanent ceasefire will occur until Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are destroyed.
- Mediators urge finalizing Biden’s plan to bring relief to Gaza and hostages’ families, but the timing and implementation remain contentious.
- Biden’s administration acknowledges the complexity of ensuring Hamas cannot rearm under the proposed arrangement.
- The war, beginning on Oct. 7, has caused significant casualties and destruction, with public support in Israel waning amid hostage concerns.
- Netanyahu’s National Security Adviser expects the war to continue through 2024, as Israel navigates internal and external pressures.
The Associated Press has the story:
Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy adviser confirms: Israel accepts Biden’s Gaza plan
NEWSLOOKS- JERUSALEM – (AP)
An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by U.S. President Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work.
In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal was “a deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them”.
“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization” have not changed.
Biden, whose initial lockstep support for Israel’s offensive has given way to open censure of the operation’s high civilian death toll, on Friday aired what he described as a three-phase plan submitted by the Netanyahu government to end the war.
The first phase entails a truce and the return of some hostages held by Hamas, after which the sides would negotiate on an open-ended cessation of hostilities for a second phase in which remaining live captives would go free, Biden said.
That sequencing appears to imply that Hamas would continue to play a role in incremental arrangements mediated by Egypt and Qatar – a potential clash with Israel’s determination to resume
Biden has hailed several ceasefire proposals over the past several months, each with similar frameworks to the one he outlined on Friday, all of which collapsed. In February he said Israel had agreed to halt fighting by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began on March 10. No such truce materialised.
The primary sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only temporary pauses to fighting until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas, which shows no sign of stepping aside, says it will free hostages only under a path to a permanent end to the war.
In his speech, Biden said his latest proposal “creates a better ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power”. He did not elaborate on how this would be achieved, and acknowledged that “there are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two”.
Falk reiterated Netanyahu’s position that “there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met”.
Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem to spare Hamas. A centrist partner, ex-general Benny Gantz, wants the deal considered.
Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative.
“Biden’s speech included positive ideas, but we want this to materialize within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Saturday.
Hamas wants a guaranteed end to the Gaza offensive, withdrawal of all invading forces, free movement for Palestinians and reconstruction aid.
Israeli officials have rejected that as an effective return to the situation in place before Oct. 7, when Hamas, committed to Israel’s destruction, ruled Gaza. Its fighters precipitated the war by storming across the border fence into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
In the ensuing Israeli assault that has laid waste to much of the impoverished and besieged coastal enclave, more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza medical officials say. Israel says 290 of its troops have died in the fighting.
Mediators urge Israel and Hamas to finalise Biden’s Gaza peace plan
Gaza conflict mediators on Saturday urged Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by U.S. President Joe Biden that they said would bring immediate relief to people in Gaza and to the hostages and their families.
Israel has said there will be no formal end to the war as long as Hamas retains power, raising questions of timing and interpretation over the truce offer, which has been provisionally welcomed by the Palestinian faction.
Biden said on Friday that Israel had proposed a deal involving an initial six-week ceasefire with a partial Israeli military withdrawal and the release of some hostages while “a permanent end to hostilities” is negotiated through mediators.
The U.S., Egypt and Qatar have been seeking for months to mediate an end to the war, but a deal has proven elusive.
The proposal, Biden said, also “creates a better ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power”. He did not elaborate on how that might be achieved. The Iranian-backed Islamist group has given no indication it might step aside or disarm voluntarily.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday any notion that Israel would agree a permanent ceasefire before “the destruction of Hamas’ military and governing capabilities” was “a non-starter”.
Two members of his coalition also threatened to withdraw from the government if he went ahead with a deal that ended the war without destroying Hamas.
Hamas said on Friday it was ready to engage “positively and in a constructive manner”. But senior official Mahmoud Mardawi told Qatari television it had not yet received details of the proposal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday there would not be a permanent ceasefire there until Hamas is destroyed.
“No agreement can be reached before the demand for the withdrawal of the occupation army and a ceasefire is met,” he said. Hamas remains committed to Israel’s destruction.
Israel has been willing only to suspend the war in exchange for hostages, saying it would resume the campaign to eliminate the Hamas threat. Hamas wants any deal to entail concrete Israeli moves to end the war, such as a full troop withdrawal.
A senior Biden administration official, asked about a potential rift in the U.S. and Israeli viewpoints on the future of Hamas, suggested this may be open to interpretation and would come down to future Egyptian and Qatari sway over the movement.
“I have no doubt that the deal will be characterized by Israel and be characterized by Hamas,” the official told reporters.
“And I think the arrangements and some of the day-after planning, you know, helps ensure that — that Hamas’s military capacity to regenerate in a way that can threaten Israel would be very much foreclosed under this arrangement and, I think the president said in his speech, ensuring that Hamas cannot rearm.”
MONTHS OF WAR
The war began on Oct. 7 when Hamas-led Palestinian fighters rampaged into southern Israel from Gaza, killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing more than 250 as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza has left the territory in ruins, led to widespread starvation, and killed more than 36,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, who say most of the dead are civilians. More than 290 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the Gaza invasion.
An Israeli public once solidly behind the war is showing signs of fatigue amid worry for the fate of the hostages.
Benny Gantz, a centrist ex-general who joined Netanyahu in an emergency coalition, has threatened to bolt next week if the prime minister does not form a Gaza day-after plan with him.
But in a possible sign that that could be deferred, Gantz on Saturday voiced appreciation for Biden and called for the Israeli war cabinet to be convened “to decide the next steps”.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said he expected the war to continue for the rest of 2024, at least.
In the United States, Israel’s main ally, the extent of civilian suffering in Gaza has put pressure on Biden, who hopes to win a second presidential term in the November election.
In his speech on Friday, Biden called on Israel’s leadership to resist pressure from those in the country who wanted the war to go on “indefinitely”.
Netanyahu could have a chance to rebut in Washington soon. His office said he had accepted an invitation to address both houses of Congress by top lawmakers – which would make him the first foreign leader to make such an appearance four times.
Netanyahu said he felt honoured and would use the opportunity to tell “the representatives of the American people and the entire world the truth about our righteous war against those who seek our destruction”.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Netanyahu to agree a hostages and ceasefire deal, saying his party would support it even if ultranationalist factions in the governing religious-rightist coalition rebelled. Lapid’s pledge meant a deal would likely pass in parliament.
“The government of Israel cannot ignore President Biden’s consequential speech. There is a deal on the table and it should be made,” Lapid said on social media.
