US President Joe Biden said on Friday that Israel has offered Hamas a three-phase ceasefire and hostage release deal, declaring it was time to end the fighting in Gaza and that Hamas is “no longer capable” of carrying out another large-scale attack on Israel.
Israel is expanding its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, once the main hub of humanitarian aid operations. The Israeli invasion has largely cut off the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to Palestinians facing widespread hunger. Israel faces growing international criticism over the huge cost in civilian lives and the widespread destruction caused by its nearly 8-month war with Hamas.
Israeli bombardments and ground operations in the besieged territory have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Israel launched its war in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and abducted about 250. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.Biden published partial Plan
An Israeli government spokesperson quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying on Monday that Biden, in advancing a plan to wind down the Gaza war, had published only some of the details. “The war will be stopped for the purpose of returning hostages and then we will proceed with other discussions,” spokesperson David Mencer quoted Netanyahu as saying, in what appeared a reiteration of Israel’s refusal to call off the offensive against Hamas entirely before the group is destroyed.
Israel’s top Gaza priority is destroying Hamas, Netanyahu said on Monday, adding that it would be pursued along with hostage recovery and that both goals were in a plan to wind down the war approved at the highest level of his government.
“This is not something that I am adding now. This is not something that I am adding because I am under pressure within the coalition. It is something we agreed on unanimously in the war cabinet,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
ANNUAL MARCH to PASS THROUGH PALESTINIAN Neighbourhood
Israel police said on Monday that an annual march that draws Israeli ultranationalists will pass through a dense Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The annual Flag March, planned for Wednesday, celebrates Israel’s capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war and its annexation shortly thereafter. Israel views all of Jerusalem as its unified capital.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, including the Old City with sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, to be the capital of their future state. They view the march as a provocation. In 2021, the flag march helped ignite an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This year, the parade comes nearly eight months into a far more devastating war, with tensions soaring across the Middle East.
