Israeli forces yesterday hammered Rafah in southern Gaza with tanks and artillery, hours after US President Joe Biden said Israel was offering a new road map toward a full ceasefire.
Shortly after Biden’s announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would still pursue the war until it had reached all its aims, including the destruction of Hamas.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian militant group said it “considers positively” the plan laid out by Biden.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In his first major address outlining a possible end to the conflict, the US president said that Israel’s three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.
It would also include the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for [the] release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”
Israel and the Palestinians would then negotiate during those six weeks for a lasting ceasefire — but the truce would continue while the talks were under way, Biden said.
The US leader urged Hamas to accept the Israeli offer.
“It’s time for this war to end, for the day after to begin,” he said, in comments echoed by British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Cameron.
Hamas in a statement on Friday evening said it “considers positively” Biden’s speech regarding “a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, reconstruction and the exchange of prisoners.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his counterparts from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Friday to press the deal.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly hopes” the latest development “will lead to an agreement by the parties for lasting peace,” his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said.
German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock said the Israeli offer “provides a glimpse of hope and a possible path out of the war’s deadlock,” while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed a “balanced and realistic” approach to end the bloodshed.
However, Netanyahu took issue with Biden’s presentation of what was on the table, insisting that the transition from one stage to the next in the proposed road map was “conditional” and crafted to allow Israel to maintain its war aims.
“The prime minister authorized the negotiating team to present an outline for achieving [the return of hostages], while insisting that the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved,” Netanyahu’s office said.
Those aims included “the return of all our hostages and the elimination of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities,” it added. “The exact outline proposed by Israel, including the conditional transition from stage to stage, allows Israel to maintain these principles.”
Israel sent tanks and troops into Rafah early last month, ignoring concerns over the safety of displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering in the city on the Egyptian border.
Yesterday, residents reported tank fire in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood in west Rafah, while witnesses in the east and center of Rafah described intense artillery shelling.
“From the early hours of the night until this morning, the aerial and artillery bombardment has not stopped for a single moment”, a resident from west Rafah said on condition of anonymity.
“There are a number of occupation [Israeli] snipers in high-rise buildings overseeing all areas of Tal al-Sultan ... making the situation very dangerous,” they added.
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