AgenPress – A senior adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that while there is still work to be done on a hostage release agreement presented by US President Joe Biden, Israel has accepted the framework.
“There are many details to work out and this includes that there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are achieved,” he said Ophir Falk at the British newspaper Sunday Times.
According to the report, Falk stressed that Israel is not rejecting the deal, which he called “a deal that we agreed to – it’s not a good deal but we desperately want the hostages to be released, all of them.”
But, echoing an earlier statement by Netanyahu, Falk added that the conditions set by Israel to end the war in Gaza, sparked by the Hamas massacre on October 7, “have not changed: the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization.”
He was also quoted as saying that Biden’s speech was “a political speech for whatever reason.”
Biden announced what he described as an Israeli proposal in his speech on Friday, sending shockwaves through the Israeli government, where far-right parties threatened to bring down the coalition if Netanyahu tried to see it approved.
President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday he would support Netanyahu to move forward with the plan.
Speaking at a conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Herzog said he had told Netanyahu he would give him “full support” for a deal on the release of the hostages.
Herzog also thanked Biden for his speech and for “his continued efforts to secure the release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.”
“I told Prime Minister Netanyahu that I will give him and the government my full support for an agreement that sees the release of the hostages. We must not forget that, according to Jewish tradition, there is no greater commandment – he added – than the ransom of prisoners and hostages, especially when it comes to Israeli citizens who the State has not been able to defend. It is our inherent obligation to bring them home under an agreement that preserves the security interests of the State of Israel.”
“We must not forget that, according to Jewish tradition, there is no greater commandment than the ransom of prisoners and hostages, especially when it comes to Israeli citizens whom the State of Israel was unable to defend,” Herzog told the conference , named after his name. father, Chaim Herzog. “It is our inherent obligation to bring them home under an agreement that preserves the security interests of the State of Israel.”
Herzog’s role is largely ceremonial and he would have no say in approving a hostage deal, but as a leading figure in the state, his opinion influences the public.
In his speech on Friday evening , Biden revealed that the new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire and hostage deal was presented to Hamas through Qatar on Thursday. The US president detailed some of the key elements of the proposal and urged Hamas to accept it and the Israeli government to “support” it.
Biden said the offer “will bring home all the hostages, ensure Israel’s security, create a better day in Gaza without Hamas in power, and lay the foundation for a political solution that offers a better future for both Israelis and for the Palestinians,” although he did not specify how Hamas will be removed from power.
While describing the latest proposal as drawn up by Israel, and therefore presumably approved by the small war cabinet, he evidently recognized that this was not Jerusalem’s final word and urged Netanyahu’s entire government to support the offer that the His negotiators had submitted through Hamas mediators.
