The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel.
Gaza:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considers the plan outlined by US President Joe Biden for a truce in Gaza and a hostage release agreement to be “partial”, a government spokesman said on Monday.
Biden on Friday presented what he called a three-phase Israeli plan that would ultimately end the fighting, release all hostages held by the Palestinian group and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip without Hamas in power.
“The draft presented by President Biden is partial,” government spokesman David Mencer said, citing Netanyahu, adding at a press conference that “the war will be stopped for the purpose of returning the hostages,” after which they will follow discussions about how to achieve Israel’s goal. objective of eliminating Hamas.
Netanyahu, according to a separate statement issued by his office, told a parliamentary committee that “allegations that we agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met are incorrect.”
The prime minister’s far-right coalition partners, party leaders, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich criticized the latest plan on Monday.
Ben Gvir said that the proposal presented by Biden would mean “the end of the war without achieving the objective that the cabinet clearly established: the destruction of Hamas”.
If Netanyahu “signs an irresponsible agreement”, Ben Gvir said his party “will dismember the government”.
Smotrich said: “If, God forbid, the government decides to adopt this surrender proposal, we will not be part of it and will act to replace the failed leadership with new leadership.”
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, a centrist former prime minister, said the government “cannot ignore Biden’s important speech,” promising to support Netanyahu if his far-right coalition partners resign.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ unprecedented attack on October 7 in southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,190 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP report based on official Israeli figures.
Hamas also took about 250 hostages, 120 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 who the army says are dead.
At least 36,479 Palestinians, also mostly civilians, have been killed in Gaza in Israeli bombings and ground offensives since October 7, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.
US, Egyptian and Qatari mediation efforts have been at a standstill since a week-long truce in November that resulted in the release of dozens of hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons and an increase in humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza under siege.
Meanwhile, Hamas’s Lebanese ally Hezbollah has been negotiating regular cross-border attacks with Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.
Smotrich said on Monday that the Israeli military should invade Lebanon and expel “hundreds of thousands of Lebanese” from the border area.
He said Israel must establish a “security strip” in southern Lebanon – as it maintained for 15 years before withdrawing troops in 2000 – including by launching “a ground invasion, occupying the territory and distancing Hezbollah terrorists and of hundreds of thousands of people.” of Lebanese among whom Hezbollah hides on the other side of the Litani River”, about 30 kilometers (almost 20 miles) away from the UN-patrolled border.
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