Family members of Israeli captives held in Gaza have called on their country’s government to accept a ceasefire plan presented by US President Joe Biden, calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly support the proposal.
At a weekly press conference on Saturday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it was calling on “the citizens of Israel to take to the streets to ensure the deal is concluded.”
The forum believes Netanyahu could obstruct a deal, after Biden told a White House news conference on Friday that Israel had presented “a new comprehensive proposal” to end the war.
The three-phase plan outlined by Biden aims to implement a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which involves the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza and the release of all Israelis held captive in the band.
Hamas has indicated it is open to the proposal, raising hopes of an end to Israel’s eight-month-old war.
In a statement, the group said it “reaffirms its willingness to engage and cooperate positively with any proposal based on the basis of a permanent ceasefire, complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction, the return of displaced people to their homes and the completion of the process. of a real prisoner exchange agreement, on condition that the occupation announces its explicit commitment in this direction.
And in a joint statement, the United States, Qatar and Egypt jointly called on Hamas and Israel to finalize a deal.
But on Saturday, Netanyahu flatly declared that for Israel’s war on Gaza to end, Hamas must be destroyed.
“The conditions imposed by Israel to end the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’s military and government capabilities, the release of all hostages, and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” he said. his office in a statement.
He said these conditions must be met “before a permanent ceasefire is put in place.”
“The idea that Israel would agree to a permanent ceasefire before these conditions are met is doomed to failure,” he adds.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Netanyahu was under pressure from his own government.
“There is a minority that is blackmailing Netanyahu and threatening the deal, and we must support the deal and not leave the arena to the extremists,” a spokesperson said.
In an article published on the social media platform of hostages presented by Biden was accepted. through.
Abdullah al-Arian, a history professor at Georgetown University in Qatar, highlighted a “major contradiction” in Israel’s demands, with Israel and its staunch ally the United States saying they do not want of a future in Gaza in which Hamas has no sort of power. political role left.
“At the same time, this is an agreement that should be reached through negotiations with Hamas, so how do we proceed? How to eliminate them as a political force and at the same time achieve a negotiated solution that is accepted by all parties,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Another “major sticking point” to a possible deal would be Israel remaining an occupying force in parts of Gaza, something he said the Palestinians have always rejected.
Alon Liel, former director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said Biden’s announcement was “music to the ears of Israelis who want to end the war.”
But there is once again a “mixed message coming from Washington,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune. “What is surprising is that (the ceasefire proposal) was described as an Israeli offer. This contradicts a lot of things Netanyahu has said recently; it looks more like an American offer presented as an Israeli offer,” Liel said.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad armed group, for its part, expressed its “suspicions” of the plan announced by Biden, saying that the “cessation of aggression” must involve a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Blinken puts pressure on Middle East leaders
Even as Biden presented the new plan, Israel continued its deadly attacks in Gaza, with artillery fire hitting residential buildings in the northern neighborhoods of Gaza City, killing several Palestinians.
Another early morning Israeli strike in Gaza City also killed a journalist, identified as Ola al-Dahdouh, according to the Palestinian Al-Aqsa TV channel.
Israeli forces also bombarded Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery, while witnesses in eastern and central Rafah described intense artillery bombardment.
In the shadow of continued Israeli bombing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held discussions with top diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, as part of efforts to rally support for the new plan ceasefire in Gaza.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud received a call from Blinken, during which they discussed the latest proposal, the Saudi Press Agency said.
According to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, Blinken “stressed that Hamas should accept the deal without delay” in phone calls from his plane as he returned from a NATO meeting in Prague.
“(Blinken) emphasized that the proposal is in the interests of both Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the long-term security of the region,” Miller added.
In Israel, opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Netanyahu to accept the deal, saying his party would support it even if right-wing factions in the government coalition rebelled, meaning a deal would likely pass at Parliament.
“The Israeli government cannot ignore President Biden’s consequential speech. There is a deal on the table and it should be done,” Lapid said in a social media post on Saturday.
Families of those held in captivity in Gaza also called on all parties to immediately support the proposal put forward by Biden, warning that time is running out and the onus is on both Israel and Hamas to accept the deal.
Meanwhile, Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto welcomed Biden’s ceasefire proposal as a step in the right direction. He said his country was ready to send peacekeeping troops to maintain a ceasefire in Gaza if necessary.
“If necessary and at the request of the UN, we stand ready to provide significant peacekeeping forces to maintain and monitor this potential ceasefire as well as ensure the protection and security of all parties and of all parties,” he told a security conference in Singapore on Saturday. .
Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war have killed at least 36,379 people and injured 82,407 others, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. Israel launched its assault on the besieged territory after a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel killed around 1,140 people.
