Netanyahu says no Gaza ceasefire until Hamas is destroyed

JERUSALEM:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that there can be no permanent ceasefire in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed, casting doubt on a key part of a truce proposal that US President Joe Biden said had been made by Israel itself.

Biden said on Friday that Israel had proposed a deal that includes an initial six-week truce with a partial Israeli military withdrawal and the release of some hostages while the two sides negotiated “a permanent end to hostilities.”

But Netanyahu’s statement on Saturday said any notion that Israel would agree to a permanent ceasefire before “the destruction of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities” was a “non-starter”.

Read: Biden clarifies Gaza truce proposal, Hamas responds positively

Peace talks have stalled for months, with Israel demanding the release of all hostages and the destruction of Hamas, while Hamas is demanding a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the release of many Palestinian prisoners.

Hamas said on Friday it was ready to participate “positively and constructively”, but one of the group’s senior officials, Mahmoud Mardawi, told a Qatari television interview that he had not yet received the details of the proposal.

“An agreement cannot be reached before the demand for the withdrawal of the occupying army and a ceasefire is fulfilled,” he said. Hamas remains committed to the destruction of Israel.

The war began on October 7 when militants from the Islamist Palestinian group swept into southern Israel from Gaza, killing more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostage, according to Israeli estimates.

Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza has left the land in ruins, led to widespread starvation and killed more than 36,000 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, who say most of the dead are civilians.

Last month Netanyahu defied calls from world leaders by sending Israeli troops into Rafah, the last part of tiny, crowded Gaza that had not yet come into effect, displacing more than a million Palestinians who had taken refuge there.

Israel said Rafah, on the border with Egypt, was Hamas’s last major stronghold in Gaza and its campaign to destroy the organization could not succeed until it entered the city.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said he expected the war in Gaza to continue through at least the rest of 2024.

Opposition

In the United States, Israel’s main ally, the extent of civilian suffering in Gaza has put pressure on Biden to end the war. The president is hoping to win a second presidential term in the November election.

“It’s time for this war to end and the next day to begin,” Biden said Friday, calling on Israel’s leadership to resist pressure from those in the country who wanted the war to continue “indefinitely.”

.Read: World’s largest humanitarian network calls for ceasefire in Gaza

Inside Israel, anger over the October 7 attack has created widespread support for the war on Gaza, although there is also pressure on the ruling coalition to bring back the remaining hostages.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Netanyahu to agree to a hostage and cease-fire deal, saying his party would support it even if right-wing factions in the ruling coalition revolted, meaning a deal would likely pass parliament .

“The government of Israel cannot ignore President Biden’s consequent speech. There is a deal on the table and it must be done,” Lapid said in a social media post on Saturday.

Finding language to describe the end of hostilities has proved a major sticking point throughout. Mediators previously pushed the two sides to agree to an extended period of calm as a compromise.

Israel says a permanent ceasefire is not possible against a group that wants to destroy it and that launched the October 7 attack.

Hamas says it will not agree to any deal that allows Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to continue.