The viability of a U.S.-backed proposal to wind down the 8-month-long war in Gaza was cast into doubt on Monday after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would only be willing to agree to a “partial” cease-fire deal that would not end the war, comments that sparked an uproar from families of hostages held by Hamas.
In an interview broadcast late Sunday on Israeli Channel 14, a conservative, pro-Netanyahu station, the Israeli leader said he was “prepared to make a partial deal — this is no secret — that will return to us some of the people,” referring to the roughly 120 hostages still held in the Gaza Strip. “But we are committed to continuing the war after a pause, in order to complete the goal of eliminating Hamas. I’m not willing to give up on that.”
Netanyahu’s comments did not deviate dramatically from what he has said previously about his terms for a deal. But they come at a sensitive time as Israel and Hamas appear to be moving further apart over the latest cease-fire proposal, and they could represent another setback for mediators trying to end the war.
Netanyahu’s comments stood in sharp contrast to the outlines of the deal detailed late last month by U.S. President Joe Biden, who framed the plan as an Israeli one and which some in Israel refer to as “Netanyahu’s deal.” His remarks could further strain Israel’s ties to the U.S., its top ally, which launched a major diplomatic push for the latest cease-fire proposal.
The three-phased plan would bring about the release of the remaining hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. But disputes and mistrust persist between Israel and Hamas over how the deal plays out.
Hamas has insisted it will not release the remaining hostages unless there’s a permanent cease-fire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. When Biden announced the latest proposal last month, he said it included both.
But Netanyahu says Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capabilities, and ensuring it can never again carry out an Oct. 7-style assault. A full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, where Hamas’ top leadership and much of its forces are still intact, would almost certainly leave the group in control of the territory and able to rearm.
While Netanyahu expects fighting in Gaza to wind down as Israeli forces conclude their offensive in Rafah, he stressed that Israel expects to have a military presence there for the foreseeable future.
"We also want to create a civilian administration, if possible, with local Palestinians and maybe with external backing from countries in the region to manage humanitarian supply and later on, civilian affairs in the [Gaza] Strip,” he said.
Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to either Hamas or the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority having a role in managing Gaza.
The U.S. has previously cautioned Israel against a long-term military occupation of the territory.
In the interview, Netanyahu said that the current phase of fighting is ending, setting the stage for Israel to send more troops to its northern border to confront the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, in what could open up a new war front. But he said that didn’t mean the war in Gaza was over.
Netanyahu said troops would soon be deployed to the northern border with Lebanon but for “defensive purposes”.
“After the intense phase is finished, we will have the possibility to move part of the forces north. And we will do this. First and foremost for defensive purposes. And secondly, to bring our [evacuated] residents home,” Netanyahu told Channel 14.
“If we can we will do this diplomatically. If not, we will do it another way. But we will bring [the residents] home,” he said.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced from northern Israel and southern Lebanon, which have seen near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters since the war in Gaza began.
U.S. and European officials are warning of the possibility of the war in Gaza expanding, with the prospect of an Israeli offensive in Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters Monday in Luxembourg that the risk of the war spilling over is growing bigger every day.
“I think that, unhappily, we are on the eve of the war expanding,” Borrell said.
He also said a cease-fire in Gaza is desperately needed to facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid, saying “delivery of humanitarian assistance inside Gaza has become impossible.”
Borrell’s comments came hours after the top U.S. military officer warned an Israeli offensive in Lebanon would raise the risk of a broader conflict that draws in Iran to aid Hezbollah.
Israel has been battling Iran-backed Hamas in its offensive in the Gaza Strip for months while also engaging in daily skirmishes with Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that Iran would be “more inclined to provide greater support to Hezbollah,” describing the militants as having more resources than Hamas.
Hezbollah says an end to the war in Gaza is a precondition for it to end its firing and being open to negotiations, while Israel has said Hezbollah must withdraw from the Lebanese border as mandated by the UN security council resolution that ended the second Lebanese war in 2006.
The threat of an escalating conflict in the north, meanwhile, appears to have offered support to Hamas’s insistence that it will not agree to a ceasefire-for-hostages deal while Israeli troops are present in Gaza and offensive operations continue.
Netanyahu’s comments came amid stark warnings from international officials of the danger of the war in the north with Hezbollah rapidly spreading.
Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who is in Washington for talks with senior Biden administration officials, told the US presidential envoy, Amos Hochstein, that a halt of Hezbollah firing would not satisfy Israel and that the group would need to withdraw a substantial distance from the border area.
During the initial six-week phase, the sides are supposed to negotiate an agreement on the second phase, which Biden said would include the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, and Israel’s full withdrawal from Gaza. The temporary cease-fire would become permanent.
Hamas appears concerned that Israel will resume the war once its most vulnerable hostages are returned. And even if it doesn’t, Israel could make demands in that stage of negotiations that were not part of the initial deal and are unacceptable to Hamas — and then resume the war when Hamas refuses them.
Netanyahu’s remarks reinforced that concern. After they were aired, Hamas said they represented “unmistakable confirmation of his rejection” of the U.S.-supported deal, which also received the backing of the United Nations’ Security Council.
In a statement late Sunday after Netanyahu’s lengthy TV interview, the Palestinian militant group said his position was “in contrast” to what the U.S. administration said that Israel had approved. The group said that its insistence that any deal should include a permanent cease-fire and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces out of the entire Gaza Strip “was an inevitable necessity to block Netanyahu’s attempts of evasion, deception, and perpetuation of aggression and the war of extermination against our people.”
Netanyahu shot back and in a statement from his office said Hamas opposed a deal. He said Israel would not withdraw from Gaza until all 120 hostages are returned.
Hamas welcomed the broad outline of the U.S. plan but proposed what it said were “amendments.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a visit to the region earlier this month, said some of Hamas’ demands were “workable” and some were not, without elaborating.
Netanyahu and Hamas both have incentives to keep the devastating war going despite the catastrophic toll it has had on civilians in Gaza and the mounting anger in Israel that after so many months Israel has not reached its aims of returning the hostages and defeating Hamas.
The families of hostages have grown increasingly impatient with Netanyahu, seeing his apparent reluctance to move ahead on a deal as tainted by political considerations. A group representing the families condemned Netanyahu’s remarks, which it viewed as an Israeli rejection of the latest cease-fire proposal.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have consistently rallied against Netanyahu and his government, demanding early elections and a deal to return the captives.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, and warned that a further escalation in the Middle East would be a “catastrophe” for all people in the region.
Speaking to reporters during an EU meeting in Luxembourg, Baerbock said she will be heading to Israel later in the day to discuss diplomatic efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza and ways to increase humanitarian aid for Palestinians.
“We’re thinking of the hostages, the images from Gaza, they are heartbreaking. That's why it's definitely not an option for us, and our partners, to bury our heads in the sand now, we need this cease-fire,” Baerbock said, and underlined that more should be done to end the suffering of Palestinian civilians.
“This is an abandonment of the 120 hostages and a violation of the state’s moral duty toward its citizens,” it said, noting that it held Netanyahu responsible for returning all the captives.
In its Oct. 7 cross-border assault, Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 people captive, including women, children and older people. Dozens were freed in a temporary cease-fire deal in late November and of the 120 remaining hostages, Israeli authorities say about a third are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory war has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. It has sparked a humanitarian crisis and displaced most of the territory’s 2.3 million population.
AP/AJ/VOA/The Guardian/TRT
Siddhartha 