AgenPress – Israeli authorities rejected some elements of the proposed hostage deal presented by US President Joe Biden over the weekend as an Israeli offer, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that there are gaps between that proposal and the Israel’s position.
“The claim that we agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met is incorrect,” the prime minister reportedly told lawmakers.
Netanyahu said in a Knesset meeting that Israel will not end the war in Gaza until it achieves its three war objectives: destroying Hamas’s military and civilian governance capabilities, securing the release of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza it no longer poses a threat to Israel.
“The proposal presented by Biden is incomplete,” the prime minister told lawmakers at a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to media reports.
He also reportedly said there are “gaps” between the Israeli version and Biden’s account.
“The war will end up bringing back the hostages and then we will discuss. There are other details that the US president has not presented to the public,” Netanyahu said.
According to Channel 12, Netanyahu said Israel can stop the war for six weeks, but not end it permanently. “Iran and all our enemies are watching to see if we will capitulate,” he said.
Biden announced in a speech late Friday what he described as an Israeli proposal for a deal, sending shockwaves through the government, whose far-right parties threatened to topple the coalition if Netanyahu tried to see it approved.
In his speech, 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 has indicated that the second phase of the deal will see a permanent end to the war and that Hamas will not be in power, but has not detailed how this would happen.
In a video statement after Monday’s Knesset meeting, Netanyahu said Israel had come “a long way” to try to get the hostages back, but said that in the meantime “we have maintained the objectives of the war, first and foremost the elimination of Hamas.
“We insist on achieving both goals,” he said. “It’s not something I add now, it’s not something I add because I was pressured by the coalition. It’s something we unanimously agreed on in the war cabinet.”
