Israel has offered a two-month ceasefire to Hamas as part of a prospective hostage deal, Axios reported Monday, citing two unnamed Israeli officials. <\/p>\n
The proposal comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas\u2019 call for an end to the Gaza war in exchange for the release of hostages held there, as he faces increasing public pressure to bring the captives home. <\/p>\n
In order to release the remaining hostages, Netanyahu said Hamas was demanding an end to the war, the release of Palestinian prisoners and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. \u201cI work on this around the clock. But to be clear: I reject outright the terms of surrender of the monsters of Hamas,\u201d he said in a statement on Sunday, adding that agreeing to the terms goes against Israel\u2019s security. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf we agree to this, our soldiers fell in vain. If we agree to this, we will not be able to guarantee the security of our citizens,\u201d the Prime Minister said. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu\u00a0has since told\u00a0families\u00a0of\u00a0the remaining\u00a0Israeli\u00a0hostages\u00a0in Gaza that\u00a0Israel\u00a0has an\u00a0\u201cinitiative\u201d\u00a0to\u00a0secure the\u00a0release\u00a0of\u00a0those\u00a0abducted\u00a0\u2013 but that there is \u201cno real proposal\u201d from Hamas that would advance their freedom, according to the prime minister\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
According to the Axios report, Israel\u2019s latest proposal envisions the release of all remaining hostages and hostage bodies in multiple phases, in exchange for Palestinian detainees imprisoned in Israel. <\/p>\n
It would also see Israel move its forces out of main population centers and allow \u201ca gradual return of Palestinian civilians to Gaza city and the northern Gaza strip.\u201d <\/p>\n
Out of the 253 hostages Israel says Hamas seized on October 7, Israel believes that 132 are still in Gaza, of whom 104 are thought to be alive. <\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal report has reported that the US, Egypt and Qatar want Israel to join a new phase of talks with Hamas that would start with the release of hostages and lead to the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. <\/p>\n
These developments come amid deepening divisions within Israel\u2019s war cabinet about whether to prioritize bringing hostages home over defeating Hamas, and as thousands protested over the weekend in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu\u2019s handling of the war. <\/p>\n
War cabinet minister Gadi Eisenkot last week suggested that the key war aim of defeating Hamas is unrealistic and called for elections within months. Eisenkot also said the government had failed to achieve what he says should be its highest priority: securing the release of the hostages. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu is under mounting pressure from the Israeli public to secure the release of captives in Gaza. On Monday, more than a dozen people, including families of the hostages, forced their way into a meeting held by the Israeli parliament\u2019s finance committee. The protesters held placards that read: \u201cYou will not sit here while they die there.\u201d <\/p>\n
Video of the scene showed security officers trying to remove the protesters amid shouting and jostling. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt can\u2019t go on like this. You\u2019d better know. It can\u2019t go on like this. You will not sit here while our children die there,\u201d shouted one protester. There were no reports of arrests inside the parliament, known as the Knesset. <\/p>\n
Israeli police said that in a separate demonstration dozens of protesters had blocked the entrance to the Knesset, \u201cviolating public order.\u201d That protest called for\u00a0an immediate election, and included some of the families of those killed on October 7. <\/p>\n
After some refused to leave, a police officer announced a dispersal order, according to an Israeli police statement. <\/p>\n
A slim majority (53%) said Netanyahu\u2019s personal interests were the main consideration driving his conduct of the war and a third (33%) said the national interest was his main consideration. <\/p>\n
It has been more than three months since Israel launched its war against Hamas, which came in response to the group\u2019s brutal October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza on Sunday surpassed 25,000, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the enclave. <\/p>\n
Netanyahu reiterated his rejection of future Palestinian sovereignty over the occupied territories on Saturday after talks with US President Joe Biden about Gaza\u2019s future. The White House has been pushing Israel to recognize the need for the Palestinians to establish an independent state in areas Israel captured in the 1967 war. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan \u2013 and this is contrary to a Palestinian state,\u201d Netanyahu said in a post Saturday on X. <\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s public rejection of a Palestinian state has placed him at odds with Israel\u2019s staunchest ally, which has long advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. <\/p>\n
Several European foreign ministers have also joined the chorus of criticism directed at Netanyahu over Israel\u2019s opposition to a two-state solution.\u00a0Josep Borrell, the European Union\u2019s foreign policy chief said on Monday that Israel\u2019s opposition to a two-state solution is \u201cunacceptable\u201d and Israel cannot expect countries to drop the issue. <\/p>\n
This story has been updated.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n Israel has offered a two-month ceasefire to Hamas as part of a prospective hostage deal, Axios reported Monday, citing two unnamed Israeli officials. The proposal comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Hamas\u2019 call for an end to the Gaza war in exchange for the release of hostages held there, as he faces increasing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}