Posted on 07/02/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to an article published by the New York Times Tuesday stating that a rift is emerging between Netanyahu and Israeli generals who want a ceasefire in Gaza.
According to the report, the General Staff Forum sees a ceasefire as the best way to free the 120 hostages still in Gaza and to give the IDF time to "recuperate" before the potential beginning of another war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, even if this would mean leaving Hamas in power in Gaza.
Netanyahu said in response to the report: "Anonymous sources are talking to the New York Times today. They are telling it that Israel will be ready to end the war before all of its goals are achieved. I don't know who those anonymous sources are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: this will not happen."
"We will end the war only after we have achieved all of its goals," Netanyahu said.
Hamas has refused multiple ceasefire proposals, including the latest proposal outlined by US President Joe Biden on May 31.
The Israeli proposal which was transmitted by Qatar to Hamas, Biden revealed, includes three phases, the first of which “would last for six weeks ... [and] would include a full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”
Phase two would see the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, Israeli forces, with withdrawal from Gaza. “As long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposal, a cessation of hostilities permanently," Biden added.
If negotiations on phase two take more than six weeks, the ceasefire will continue as long as talks continue, he stated.
Phase three would encompass "a major reconstruction plan for Gaza," said the President, as well as the repatriation of the remains of deceased hostages to their families.