Israel accepted the ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip proposed by the Biden administration last week. However, the country indicated that it does not support the underlying ideas behind the ceasefire and the decision placed increased pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu’s government said that it accepted the proposal set by President Joe Biden. Top Netanyahu advisor Ophir Falk said that the plan was a “deal we agreed to — it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.”
“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” said Falk. Israel also sought “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization,” he added.
The news came after Netanyahu initially disagreed with Biden’s proposal. Netanyahu’s office wrote on social media that his country’s “conditions for ending the war have not changed: The destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.”
“The notion that Israel will agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are fulfilled is a non-starter,” his office added.
The news came amid a fresh round of fighting between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah in the country’s north.
The current ceasefire proposal received considerable criticism from conservatives and parts of the Israeli government.
The current ceasefire plan is a plan to keep Hamas in power. The result will be that Hamas will return to running most of Gaza in a year and the reconstruction effort will obviously empower Hamas as it has in the past, with Hamas partnering with the donors and then each house… pic.twitter.com/UbyFmEnnNI
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) June 1, 2024
Rafah is the last remaining stronghold of the Hamas terrorist organization. The group launched the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that killed about 1,200 people and sparked the current conflict.
The two sides had one previous ceasefire last year. However, another round of recent ceasefire talks fell apart after Hamas stated that it could not guarantee that some of the hostages Israel sought to return were alive.
Israel has moved into part of Rafah, which Biden had previously called a “red line.” The Biden administration also received significant criticism from conservatives after it withheld munitions to Israel. Biden said that he would hold further weapons if Israel moved to take Rafah.
