Israel wants to move towards a ceasefire plan in the Gaza Strip and its adoption now depends only on Hamas, the White House and Joe Biden said separately on Monday.
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“Hamas is now the only obstacle to a complete ceasefire” in Gaza, the American president said during a telephone conversation with the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, according to a report that the White House made it.
Mr. Biden also “confirmed Israel’s desire to move forward on the basis of the conditions offered” to the Palestinian movement and which he himself had detailed on Friday from the White House, according to the press release from the American executive.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan made a similar speech.
Israel is willing to move forward on the path to an agreement presented by Joe Biden for a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza and the ball is in Hamas’ court, he insisted.
The executive’s diplomatic adviser made the remarks Monday despite growing doubts about the draft agreement described by Washington as Israeli, but which has sparked mixed reactions within the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“This weekend, Israel again demonstrated its willingness to move forward and reach a deal,” Mr. Sullivan told a forum of policymakers in Washington. “All those who have been calling for a ceasefire all this time must look Hamas in the face this week and tell it that it is time to sit down at the negotiating table and make a deal.”
goal post
“If the leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinouar, decides that he is safe in a tunnel and that this proposal is not in his interest because he feels safe, that is an assessment that he can do,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
“But I think it is very clearly in the interest of the Palestinian people,” he added, arguing that the proposal was “almost identical” to the one Hamas submitted a few weeks ago, and saying he hoped Hamas “is not going to move the goalposts now.”
Jake Sullivan, who has visited the Middle East several times since the deadly attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement against Israel on October 7, followed by massive Israeli reprisals in the Gaza Strip, insisted that an agreement would be “the best thing” for the people of Gaza, Israel and the United States.
The US president on Friday outlined what he called Israel’s three-phase plan to end the war, secure the release of all hostages and rebuild the ravaged Palestinian territory.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s services, however, reacted by declaring that Israel was determined to continue the war until the elimination of Hamas.
An Israeli government spokesperson again said Monday that the plan in question was “incomplete.”
Hamas judged the road map presented by Washington “positive” on Friday.
The White House insisted on Monday that this was Israeli and that it was not a plan concocted by Washington to put pressure on the Israeli ally.
“This is an Israeli proposal. This is a proposal that they and we have worked on through intense diplomatic efforts,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.
While recognizing the divisions within the Israeli government, the United States judges that “endless conflict in Gaza, in search of some idea of total victory, will not make Israel safer,” according to Matthew Miller.
He stressed that Hamas had been “incredibly diminished” during the eight months of war, with many of its fighters killed and weapons and underground weapons factories destroyed.
