Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he accepted US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff’s outline for a Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange.
“Israel accepts the new Witkoff outline,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with families of Israeli hostages in Gaza as cited by a statement released by his office.
However, his cabinet ministers have earlier expressed strong opposition to Witkoff’s proposal for a Gaza ceasefire to end Israel’s brutal onslaught on the Palestinian enclave.
On Wednesday, Witkoff said negotiators are close to reaching a deal that could end Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I have some very good feelings about getting to a long-term resolution, temporary ceasefire, and a long-term resolution, a peaceful resolution of that conflict,” he told reporters at the White House.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich immediately declared his opposition to the ceasefire proposal, claiming it would be “a lifeline to Hamas.”
“We are not leaving areas we’ve conquered,” the hardline minister said.
Settlement Minister Orit Strock called on Netanyahu to continue the war on Gaza, saying that Israel must not “fold” now.
Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli rejected the American ceasefire proposal, describing the plan as “salami tactics.”
The hardline minister urged Netanyahu to let the army continue its mission of taking over Gaza and compel Hamas to surrender.
Extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir echoed a similar opposition.
“The prime minister knows what my red line is, and he knows when he crosses it,” he said, reiterating his absolute rejection of any deal that stops the war on Gaza, even if partial.
“A partial deal is the wrong thing to do.”
Opposition backs ceasefire
The Israeli opposition, however, threw its weight behind Witkoff’s proposal to end the war on Gaza.
Main opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Netanyahu to “publicly and immediately” accept the American proposal.
He reiterated his promise to offer Netanyahu a “full safety net” to pass the deal if his coalition members vote against it.
Benny Gantz, chairman of the opposition National Unity Party, also backed the American proposal, saying Netanyahu “has no excuse” to reject it.
“He (Netanyahu) must adopt the American proposal and advance a framework that will return all hostages,” Gantz added.
Proposal doesn’t meet our demands – Hamas
Meanwhile, Hamas, the Palestinian group, said the deal failed to satisfy its demands.
Hamas sources said last week the group had accepted a US-backed deal, but on Thursday, political bureau member Bassem Naim said the new version meant “the continuation of killing and famine… and does not meet any of our people’s demands, foremost among them halting the war”.
“Nonetheless, the movement’s leadership is studying the response to the proposal with full national responsibility,” he added.
A source close to the group said the new version “is considered a retreat” from the previous one, which “included an American commitment regarding permanent ceasefire negotiations”.
According to two sources close to the negotiations, the new proposal involves a 60-day truce, potentially extendable to 70 days, and the release of 10 living hostages and nine bodies in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the first week.
‘Starvation tactics’
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains dire despite aid beginning to trickle back into the territory after a more than two-month Israeli blockade.
Food security experts say starvation is looming for one in five people.
Israel has also intensified its military offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, whose October 7, 2023, attack triggered the war.
Gaza’s civil defence said 54 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Thursday, including 23 in a strike on a home in Al-Bureij, and two by Israeli gunfire near a US-backed aid centre in the Morag axis, in the south.
The centre, run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), is part of a new aid distribution system designed to keep supplies from Hamas. It has drawn criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.
“What is happening to us is degrading,” said Gazan Sobhi Areef, who visited a GHF centre on Thursday.
“We go there and risk our lives just to get a bag of flour to feed our children.”
Israel’s military said it was not aware of the shooting near the aid centre. In Al-Bureij, it said it struck a “Hamas cell” and was reviewing reports of civilian deaths.
In a phone call with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of “systematic starvation tactics” that had “crossed all moral and legal boundaries”.
The aid issue has come sharply into focus amid starvation fears and intense criticism of the GHF, which has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system in the territory.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said aid trucks were entering via the Kerem Shalom crossing, and accused the UN of “trying to block” GHF’s work.
The United Nations said it was doing its utmost to distribute the limited aid allowed in. (Daily trust)
