After Biden’s push for truce, Netanyahu calls Israel’s war plans unchanged

Palestinians make their way, as they inspect the damage after Israeli forces withdrew from Jabalia refugee camp, following a raid, in the northern Gaza Strip, May 31, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
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JERUSALEM — A day after President Joe Biden called on Israel and Hamas to reach a truce, declaring that it was “time for this war to end,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday reiterated that Israel would not agree to a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as long as Hamas still retains governing and military power.

In his statement, Netanyahu did not explicitly endorse or reject a proposed cease-fire plan that Biden had laid out in an unusually detailed address Friday. Two Israeli officials confirmed that Biden’s proposal matched an Israeli cease-fire proposal that had been greenlit by Israel’s war Cabinet. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.

But the timing of Netanyahu’s remarks, coming first thing the next morning, seemed to put the brakes on Biden’s hopes for a speedy resolution to the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

“Israel’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,” Netanyahu’s office said in the statement released Saturday morning.

Biden administration officials and some Israeli analysts said they believed that Israel still supported the proposal Biden described Friday, and that Netanyahu’s statement Saturday was more tailored to his domestic audience and meant to manage his far-right Cabinet members, rather than to push back against the White House. Biden is eager for the war to end, with the U.S. presidential election just five months away.

But Netanyahu’s domestic political worries could prove paramount. On Saturday night, two of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners — Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir — threatened to quit his government should he move forward with the proposal. 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 Netanyahu’s government.

Hamas immediately welcomed Biden’s speech Friday and said that it was willing to deal “positively and constructively” with any agreement that met its list of demands, including a complete Israeli withdrawal, a permanent cease-fire, the reconstruction of Gaza, the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes and a “serious prisoner exchange.”

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

Ever since the armed group’s devastating Oct. 7 attack, which Israeli authorities have said left 1,200 dead in Israel and 250 others taken hostage, Israeli leaders have vowed to topple Hamas’ rule in Gaza. They have also said they will maintain “security control” in Gaza after the war, making a full withdrawal more difficult.

Netanyahu has repeatedly promised the Israeli public “absolute victory” over Hamas, arguing in April that such an outcome lay just “a step away.” Hamas militants, nonetheless, have fought a dogged guerrilla war against Israeli troops in Gaza, and top leaders of Hamas there have frustrated Israeli efforts to capture or assassinate them.

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, with large crowds attending demonstrations in Tel Aviv. About 125 of the roughly 250 hostages remain in Gaza, with over 30 of them presumed dead, Israeli authorities have said.

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 to free the remaining hostages was critical.

“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,” Dickmann said. “It could be now or never.”

Were Netanyahu to agree to the deal, however, he could struggle to maintain his governing coalition. Some of his far-right coalition partners have suggested they might leave his government should there be what they see as a premature end to the war. And if Israel agreed to a truce that allowed Hamas to retain power, even moderate Israelis would likely wonder what the offensive in Gaza had really accomplished.

Netanyahu’s emergency unity government is already under threat: Benny Gantz, a rival who united with Netanyahu as a wartime measure, has threatened to leave unless the premier articulates a plan for postwar Gaza and to bring home hostages by June 8. Netanyahu has yet to announce any intention to meet Gantz’s demands.

On Thursday, Dickmann said he had met with Israel’s national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, along with several other hostage family members. Hanegbi told the group that the Israeli government was not in a place to agree to a hostage release deal that included ending the war, Dickmann said.

© 2024 The New York Times Company