Biden’s Gaza plan ‘not a good deal’, but Israel accepts it, Netanyahu aide says

JERUSALEM:

An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework agreement to end the war in Gaza now being pushed by US President Joe Biden, although he described it as flawed and much more work needed.

In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ofir Falk, Netanyahu’s chief foreign policy adviser, said Biden’s proposal was “a deal we agreed to – it’s not a good deal, but we really want the hostages released, all of them.” .

“There are many details that need to be explored,” he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization” have not changed.

Biden, whose initial support for Israel’s horrific attack gave way to open criticism of the operation’s high civilian death toll, on Friday aired what he described as a three-phase plan put forth by the Netanyahu administration to end the war .

The first phase involves a truce and the return of some hostages held by Hamas, after which the sides will negotiate a permanent cessation of hostilities for a second phase in which the remaining living captives will be freed, Biden said.

This sequence appears to imply that the Hamas resistance group will continue to play a role in incremental settlements brokered by Egypt and Qatar – a potential conflict with Israel’s determination to restart the campaign to eliminate Hamas militants.

Read details on Gaza ceasefire proposal, Hamas responds positively

Biden has floated several cease-fire proposals in recent months, each with similar frameworks to the one he outlined Friday, which have collapsed. In February he said Israel had agreed to a ceasefire until Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began on March 10. No such truce materialized.

The main sticking point was Israel’s insistence that it would only discuss temporary ceasefires until Hamas was destroyed. Hamas, which shows no signs of backing down, says it will release hostages only on a path to a definitive end to the war.

In his speech, Biden said his latest proposal “creates a better ‘after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power.” He did not specify how this would be achieved and acknowledged that “there are some details to be negotiated for the transition from phase one to phase two”.

Falk reiterated Netanyahu’s position that “there will be no permanent ceasefire until all our goals are met.”

Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to protest any deal they see as sparing Hamas. A centrist partner, former general Benny Gantz, wants the deal scrutinized.

The resistance group temporarily welcomed the Biden initiative.

“Biden’s speech included positive ideas, but we want this to be implemented as part of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands,” senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Saturday.

Hamas wants a guaranteed end to the attack on Gaza, the withdrawal of all invading forces, free movement of Palestinians and aid for reconstruction.

Israeli officials have dismissed it as effectively a return to the status quo before October 7, when Hamas, committed to Israel’s destruction, ruled Gaza. Its fighters precipitated the war by storming across the border fence into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli accounts.

In the ensuing Israeli offensive, which has devastated much of the impoverished and besieged coastal enclave, more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza medical officials say. Israel says 290 of its soldiers have been killed in the fighting.