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02-06-2024
RAFAH: Israeli forces hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery Saturday, hours after US President Joe Biden said Israel was offering a new roadmap toward a full ceasefire.
Shortly after Biden’s announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted his country would still pursue the war until it had reached all its aims, including the destruction of Hamas.
Netanyahu on Saturday insisted on Hamas’s destruction as part of an Israeli plan presented by US President Joe Biden to end the Gaza war.
“Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” the Israeli leader said in a statement.
“Under the proposal, Israel will continue to insist these conditions are met before a permanent ceasefire is put in place.
“The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter,” Netanyahu added.
The Palestinian militant group, meanwhile, said it “considers positively” the plan laid out by Biden.
In his first major address outlining a possible end to the conflict, the US president said Israel’s three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.
It would also see the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for (the) release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”
Israel and the Palestinians would then negotiate during those six weeks for a lasting ceasefire but the truce would continue while the talks remained underway, Biden said.
The US leader urged Hamas to accept the Israeli offer. “It’s time for this war to end, for the day after to begin,” he said, in comments echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Hamas in a statement on Friday evening said it “considers positively” Biden’s speech regarding “a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, reconstruction and the exchange of prisoners.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his counterparts from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye on Friday to press the deal.
UN Chief Antonio Guterres “strongly hopes” the latest development “will lead to an agreement by the parties for lasting peace,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the Israeli offer “provides a glimpse of hope and a possible path out of the war’s deadlock,” while EU chief Ursula von der Leyen welcomed a “balanced and realistic” approach to end the bloodshed but Netanyahu took issue with Biden’s presentation of what was on the table, insisting the transition from one stage to the next in the proposed roadmap was “conditional” and crafted to allow Israel to maintain its war aims.
“The prime minister authorized the negotiating team to present an outline for achieving (the return of hostages), while insisting that the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Those aims included “the return of all our hostages and the elimination of Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities,” it added.
“The exact outline proposed by Israel, including the conditional transition from stage to stage, allows Israel to maintain these principles.”
Israel has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
