Comment made despite signs of division in Israeli war cabinet and Netanyahu appearing to challenge the deal
National security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday the Biden administration is waiting for a response from Hamas about the peace proposal.National security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Monday the Biden administration is waiting for a response from Hamas about the peace proposal.
“Hamas has now got this proposal. It got it Thursday night. We’re awaiting an official response by them,” Kirby said. “They ought to take the deal. This gives them what they’ve been looking for, which is a ceasefire and over time, through phases, the potential withdrawal of Israeli forces fromUS officials said that the proposal had evolved in discussions between US, Israeli and Qatari negotiators in the past few weeks.
The first phase of the proposal would be similar to an earlier plan that failed to win agreement. Over six weeks, Hamas would release elderly, sick, wounded and female hostages, and Israel would free a greater number of Palestinian detainees. There would be a ceasefire and Israeli forces would pull back from densely populated areas, allowing Palestinians to go back to whatever is left of their homes, and 600 trucks of humanitarian assistance would cross into the coastal strip each day.
It is in the transition between the first and second phase where the gaps between Biden and Netanyahu’s versions are the greatest. The plan, as spelled out by the US president, suggested that Hamas and Israel would negotiate the second phase, but the Israeli prime minister insisted that Hamas would have to be smashed before there could be an enduring ceasefire.
Netanyahu told his cabinet on Monday that Israel’s first priority in Gaza is to destroy Hamas, and the first stage of the plan announced by Biden on Friday could be implemented on its own without agreeing to an end to the war. Since Friday, Netanyahu has come under intense pressure from the rightwing of his government. Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, accused the prime minister of trying to whitewash the peace deal, and restated his threat to quit the government if Israel entered a deal that did not specify the total destruction of Hamas as a military and political force.
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