Netanyahu Says Did Not Agree to End War without Objectives Met

June 4, 2024

by: Itamar Eichner, Moran Azulay ~ Ynet

Tuesday, 4 June 2024 | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that US President Joe Biden presented only a partial outline of the agreed proposal to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of the Israeli hostages.

“There is more in the proposal that Biden did not mention,” Netanyahu told the Knesset [parliament] Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee adding he did not agree to end the war.

“As for the gaps, I don’t know what gaps you’re referring to,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing with reporters.

He noted that Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser had confirmed to the Times of London over the weekend that the offer detailed by Biden was indeed an Israeli proposal.

“We’re confident that [Biden’s speech] accurately reflects that [Israeli] proposal—a proposal that we worked with the Israelis on, so I know of no gaps to speak of,” Kirby said.

“We are working in countless ways to return our hostages. I think about them constantly, about their families and about their suffering. Therefore, we have gone a long way to return them while adhering to the objectives of the war, first and foremost the elimination of Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“We are insistent that we will achieve both. This is part of the outline, not something that I have just added. It is not something that I have added because of coalition pressure. This is something that we agreed on in the war cabinet unanimously.”

A senior political official said that in his meeting with lawmakers in the Knesset, Netanyahu said that as agreed in the war cabinet—Israel does not commit to ending the war before all its objectives are reached, adding that those objectives remain the destruction of Hamas’s military and governing abilities, the release of all of the hostages and assurances that Gaza can no longer pose a security threat to Israel.

“According to the proposal, Israel will insist that phase two—a permanent cease-fire—would begin only after a full agreement of its terms,” the officials said. “No later than the 16th day, negotiations will begin to reach an agreement on the terms for phase two. Israel will insist its conditions are accepted.”

Posted on June 4, 2024

Source: (Excerpt of an article originally published by Ynetnews on June 3, 2024. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: US Embassy Tel Aviv/ MathKnight-at-TAU/Wikimedia.org

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