Joe Biden, the US president, has released a plan to end the war after growing frustration with how long and brutal it has become. Photo: Michael Reynolds/Shutterstock
The White House said it “expects Israel to say yes” to the Gaza peace plan, despite having so far rejected it.
US President Joe Biden has launched a three-part plan to end the war after growing frustration over how long and brutal it has become.
His proposal would begin with a six-week ceasefire that would see Israeli troops withdraw from populated areas of Gaza and would include an exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
On this week's ABC News Sunday, John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said the deal was “Israel's proposal that they came to after intense diplomacy with our own national security team and at the State Department.”
He added: “We are now at the point where this proposal, the Israeli proposal, has been conveyed to Hamas. This was done on Thursday evening our time. We are waiting for an official response from Hamas.
“We would like to note that publicly representatives of Hamas came out and welcomed this proposal.”
Mr Kirby's comments are at odds with the Israeli prime minister's position as of Saturday. In a statement, Benjamin Netanyahu said a permanent ceasefire was a “total failure,” adding: “Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed: destroying Hamas' military and command capabilities, releasing all hostages and ensuring that the Gaza Strip no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, said: “Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed: destroying Hamas' military and command capabilities, releasing all hostages and ensuring that the Gaza Strip no longer poses a threat to Israel.” Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP
His right-wing coalition has also threatened to dissolve the government unless Netanyahu continues to push for the elimination of Hamas. Bezalel Smotrich, the economy minister, said that “we will not agree to an end to the war before Hamas is destroyed, nor to serious damage to the gains of the war by withdrawing the IDF and returning Gazans to the north of the Gaza Strip, and to the mass release of terrorists who, God forbid, will return to kill Jews.”
Israel claims that the tunnels connecting the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, where the Israeli army currently has full operational control, can still be used by Hamas to gain access to ready-made arms supplies and funding from its allies abroad.
But in an interview on Sunday, Mr. Kirby said U.S. intelligence suggests Hamas has deteriorated militarily to the point that it can no longer repeat an attack like the one its fighters carried out on October 7.
Official response
Mr Kirby said: “We did not say that they do not still pose a real threat to the Israeli people. Of course they do. But they don't have the military capacity to do what they did.”
“We are waiting for an official response from Hamas,” he said, adding that the US hopes both sides will agree to begin the first phase of the plan. “as soon as possible.”
Mr Kirby's comments appeared to signal that the US would not approve of continuing the war, until Israel's national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi suggested this week that was the case . maybe for at least another seven months.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip has topped 36,000, according to Hamas, and international pressure is becoming impossible to ignore as the International Court of Justice has ordered an operation in Gaza. Rafah stop immediately.
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