Netanyahu Answers Biden’s Calls for Truce by Insisting on ‘Destruction’ of Hamas (2024)

Netanyahu says Israel’s war plans ‘have not changed.’

“Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu’s office said in the statement released on Saturday morning.

As outlined by Mr. Biden, the proposal did not mention who would rule the Gaza Strip after the war. Unless other arrangements are reached, that could leave Hamas de facto in charge of the territory, which the Palestinian armed group would consider a major strategic victory after nearly eight months of an Israeli military offensive.

On Saturday night, two of Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners — Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir — threatened to quit his government should he move forward with the proposal. Mr. Ben-Gvir labeled the terms of the agreement a “total defeat” and a “victory for terrorism.” If both of their parties left his coalition, it could mark the end of Mr. Netanyahu’s government.

For months, Mr. Netanyahu has promised his people “absolute victory” against Hamas in Gaza, but its leaders have largely managed to evade Israeli attempts to take them out. He has pledged to bring home the remaining 125 living and dead hostages, but would most likely have to accede to Hamas’s demand for a permanent truce to do so. And if he does agree to such a deal, his far-right coalition allies could pull out, threatening his hold on power.

Analysts in Israel said Mr. Netanyahu’s carefully worded statement reflected those tensions. He has sought to buy time, balancing competing demands at home and abroad while avoiding tough decisions that would jeopardize his political standing, they said.

Mr. Biden’s speech, however, may indicate that the clock is beginning to run out.

“Biden is challenging Israel, saying: ‘I am expecting you to allow this arrangement to go forward. Do not sabotage it. Do not drag the rug out from underneath it for political reasons,” said Uzi Arad, a former Israeli national security adviser under Mr. Netanyahu. “Put your money where your mouth is.”

But at home, Mr. Netanyahu faces a host of competing pressures.

The families of hostages held in Gaza have rallied public support for their call for a cease-fire deal amid rising fears over their loved ones’ fates, and large crowds regularly attend solidarity demonstrations in Tel Aviv. About 125 of the roughly 250 hostages taken captive by Hamas and other Palestinian militants are still in Gaza, and more than 30 of those are presumed dead, according to the Israeli authorities.

Gil Dickmann, whose cousin Carmel Gat was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led massacre there on Oct. 7, conceded that the deal would be difficult to swallow for parts of the Israeli public. But he said reaching an agreement was critical, and not just for the remaining hostages.

“If this deal doesn’t go through, because of either Hamas or Israel, we are heading toward a forever war, where we sink deeper and deeper into the mud, dragging down Israelis, Palestinians and certainly the hostages,” said Mr. Dickmann.

Even before Saturday night, Mr. Netanyahu’s emergency unity government was already under threat. Benny Gantz, a rival who united with Mr. Netanyahu as a wartime measure, has threatened to leave unless the premier articulates a plan for postwar Gaza and bringing home hostages by June 8. If Mr. Gantz left, it would deprive Mr. Netanyahu of his most moderate partners, further damaging the Israeli government’s image abroad.

On Saturday, Mr. Gantz said the latest Israeli proposal had been approved unanimously in the war cabinet. He added that he would seek to advance the deal, saying that bringing home the hostages was an urgent national priority.

Yair Lapid, the leader of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, also urged Mr. Netanyahu to take the deal as outlined by Mr. Biden. He repeated that his party would back Mr. Netanyahu’s government if hard-liners like Mr. Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, left over a hostage release deal.

Political analysts said Mr. Netanyahu has tried to avoid that scenario, as it would make him dependent on some of his harshest critics.

Israel and Hamas first observed a weeklong truce in late November, during which 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners were released. Since then, both sides have dug in to seemingly intractable positions: Hamas conditioned any further hostage releases on Israel’s ending the war, while Israel vowed there would be no truce until it destroyed Hamas and brought home its hostages.

Israeli, Egyptian and U.S. officials will discuss reopening Rafah, and other news.

Protesters in Tel Aviv and other cities call on Netanyahu to accept the cease-fire proposal.

The group demanded an “immediate approval of the deal,” the statement said, adding, “Don’t lose this moment!”

Mr. Netanyahu was still calling for the complete destruction of Hamas and the freeing of all hostages before ending the war. And two of Mr. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners — Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir — threatened to quit his government should he move forward with the proposal.

The debate over the latest proposal gave new life to protests held every Saturday in Tel Aviv. Thousands of demonstrators rallied in the streets there and in other parts of Israel on Saturday evening in support of the proposal.

Some protesters covered themselves in fake blood, and others walked through the streets holding the Israeli flag and signs that read “Bring Them Home.” Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, reported that protesters blocked traffic in northern Israel, and that at least three people were detained.

Haaretz also reported that thousands of demonstrators rallied near Mr. Netanyahu’s house in Caesarea, a coastal town located midway between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Protesters also gathered in Rome, Paris and Jakarta, Indonesia, on Saturday.

The United States also continued its efforts to push the region to work toward a cease-fire in Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke on Saturday with the Egyptian foreign minister, Qatar’s prime minister and Qatar’s minister of foreign affairs. Egypt and Qatar have been working to help broker an agreement. In his phone calls, Mr. Blinken spoke about the urgent need for a cease-fire and called on Hamas to accept the deal without delay, said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department.

Aaron Boxerman contributed reporting.

In Gaza, a university lecturer asks of the latest cease-fire proposal: Who will govern us after the war?

During the first phase, Israel and Hamas would continue to negotiate to reach a permanent cease-fire and kick off a second phase aimed at ending the war. If the talks take more than six weeks, the first phase of the truce would continue until they reach a deal, Mr. Biden said. The third phase would begin to tackle the enormous job of rebuilding Gaza.

Rami Shrafee, the university lecturer at the Palestine University, said it wasn’t clear who would represent Gazans in the second and third phase of the agreement. In the past, the United States has said that the Palestinian Authority, which runs the West Bank, ought to be brought in to run Gaza, but it wasn’t clear if that was still the U.S. position.

“Who is going to sign off on this deal, Hamas or the Palestinian Authority or the Palestinian people?” Mr. Shrafee asked.

He added that Israel has been clear that it doesn’t want either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the conflict ends.

Mr. Shrafee sees the proposal as part of continued efforts to keep the Palestinian territories separate and undermine any prospect for a future Palestinian state.

“If there is no Palestinian unity and a Palestinian national plan, then the destructive efforts to the Palestinian existence will continue,” he said. “And Gaza will remain separate from the West Bank, and there will continue to be a division between the Palestinian Authority and whoever administers Gaza.”

Al-Qasem Saed, a lawyer and researcher with the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said Mr. Biden’s position was a victory because it reflected the “resistance of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip” and the capitulation of “the leader of a country the size of the United States, that is considered the police officer of the world.”

Others, like Rania Al Khodary, who helped promote local business on social media, were just glad to see the United States talking about ending Israel’s war in Gaza. On social media, she captured the exhaustion and frustration many felt, saying, “Assuming Hamas agrees with Biden’s proposal and Israel accepts, the war will have ended with penalty kicks … or an offside goal … just let it end.”

U.N. official describes ‘beyond crisis’ conditions facing people who fled Rafah.

Many of the estimated one million people who have been forced to flee from Rafah, where they thought they could remain for the duration of the war with relatively reliable access to aid, expressed dismay at not knowing what to do next, he said.

“Should we try and leave? Should we try to storm the border with Egypt? Should we try to go back to Gaza City? What should we do?” people in Gaza repeatedly asked, Mr. Hollingworth recounted.

The areas people have relocated to from Rafah have no aid infrastructure and are at “beyond crisis levels” in terms of public health, with not enough space for a sufficient number of pit toilets, he said. As a result, there are high rates of diarrhea among children, he said.

“The sounds and smells of everyday life are horrific and apocalyptic,” he said.

After nearly two weeks when no World Food Program trucks entered southern Gaza, a “trickle” of aid has resumed through the border crossings into Rafah but not nearly enough to meet the need, he said. The U.N. agency is supplying about 27,000 meals a day in Rafah and about 400,000 meals a day in central Gaza as it tries to scale up in the areas where people were newly sheltering, he said.

At a separate briefing Friday, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization cited a recent snapshot survey in which 85 percent of children said they had gone a full day without any food in the previous three days. She did not specify when the survey was conducted or how many people were polled.

“You ask, ‘Are the supplies getting through?’ No, children are starving,” Margaret Harris, the spokeswoman, said in Geneva.

Access to food in northern Gaza has markedly improved with the recent openings of northern border crossings, Mr. Hollingworth said. About 12,000 tons of aid entered northern Gaza through Erez and Erez West in May, he said.

“The north looks very different because of it,” he said.