Washington Post: Netanyahu dismisses cease-fire proposal, angering hostage families

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to dismiss the cease-fire proposal backed by President Biden, angering the families of Israeli hostages who accused him of not honoring a key element of the plan: a full Israeli military withdrawal.

In a TV interview Sunday night, Netanyahu said he was open to some aspects of a hostage exchange but not the permanent cease-fire that Biden presented as part of what he described as the proposed Israeli deal last month.

“The intense phase of the war will come to an end very soon,” Netanyahu said. “But that does not mean that the war will be over.” He added: “I am willing to make a partial deal, which will bring some of the people back to us. That is no secret. But we’re committed to continuing the war after the truce.”

Netanyahu’s remarks came as Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant visited Washington, where he is meeting with U.S. officials to describe a new phase in the war in Gaza and escalating tensions in the north with Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. In a meeting with U.S. special envoy Amos Hochstein on Monday, Gallant said that “Phase C” of the war would have consequences on all fronts for Israel, according to a statement from Gallant’s office.

Ahead of his Monday meeting with CIA Director William J. Burns, Gallant said he would discuss securing the return of the hostages, which he called “Israel’s primary commitment.”

He also met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. According to a State Department readout, Blinken updated Gallant on “diplomatic efforts to advance security, governance, and reconstruction” in a postwar Gaza and “emphasized the importance of that work to Israel’s security.”

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday. (Haitham Imad/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Monday condemned Netanyahu’s remarks, calling his apparent rejection of the cease-fire and hostage-release proposal “an unprecedented national failure and a departure from the war’s objectives.”

The group said Netanyahu’s plan “abandons” the 120 hostages and “violates the state’s moral obligation to its citizens.” It said that “the responsibility and duty to return all hostages lies with the prime minister.”

The families of the hostages have increasingly clashed with Netanyahu and far-right members of his cabinet over whether it is a priority to reach a deal on the hostages or to continue fighting to destroy Hamas.

In a statement shared Monday on Telegram, Hamas condemned Netanyahu’s remarks and said his aim for a “partial agreement” would result in the continuation of the war after the recovery of prisoners — which clearly violates Biden’s proposal.

Hamas said its “insistence that any agreement must include a clear confirmation of a permanent cease-fire and a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip” was a necessary step. While Hamas said it views the proposal “positively,” it has also added conditions that the United States has called unacceptable.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, also expressed disappointment with Netanyahu’s comments and their effect on talks to end the conflict.

“The last declaration from Prime Minister Netanyahu confirms that, unhappily, this plan is not going to be implemented,” Borrell said in Luxembourg ahead of a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers.

“I am worried, I am much more worried, every day the crises are spilling over,” he added, citing fears that border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah could escalate. “The risk of this war affecting the south of Lebanon and spilling over is also every day bigger.”

The worry in Europe over the war’s expansion was further underscored when German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said at the same event that it was “absolutely important” that a cease-fire is reached in Gaza. She urged Hamas to “finally agree” to a deal. Baerbock, who described the situation at the Lebanon-Israel border as “more than concerning,” said that she would be traveling to the Middle East and that “a further escalation would be a catastrophe for all people in the region.”

Palestinian children sit at the edge of a crater after an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday. (Jehad Alshrafi/AP)

The aid agency Save the Children also joined the chorus of those calling for an end to the war in Gaza, saying Monday that a cease-fire is “desperately” needed.

More than 20,000 children are estimated to be missing in Gaza, according to a report released by the organization on Monday. The report notes that the young are thought to be “lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves.”

At least 17,000 children are believed to be unaccompanied and separated from their families, the report said. It noted that the figure was made worse by Israel’s recent offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which “increased the strain” on families and communities inside the enclave.

Conditions in Gaza make it “nearly impossible” to gather and verify information, the report said. But it estimated that around 4,000 children are probably missing under rubble and that an unknown number are in mass graves.

Other children, the report said, have been “forcibly disappeared,” including an unknown number who were allegedly detained and transferred out of Gaza — their whereabouts unknown to their loved ones.

After conducting a situational assessment in Rafah, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said the Israeli military is “clearly approaching the point where we can say we have dismantled the Rafah Brigade.” He added that he meant this in the sense that the brigade can “no longer function as a fighting unit,” not in the sense that there are “no more terrorists.”