Biden-backed plan to return hostages ‘without harming other aims of war,’ Netanyahu says

ISTANBUL 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that a Gaza cease-fire plan backed by US President Joe Biden will enable the release of hostages “without harming the other aims of the war.”

In a statement by his office, Netanyahu said his refusal to halt the Gaza onslaught “is what brought Hamas back to the negotiating table.”

The “framework that was agreed by Israel and was welcomed by President Biden will enable Israel to return hostages without harming the other aims of the war,” he said.

The Israeli prime minister claimed that any deal would allow Tel Aviv to return to fighting “until its war aims are met.

“Weapons smuggling to Hamas from the Gaza-Egypt border will not be possible,” he said. “Israel will maximize the number of living hostages who will be returned from Hamas captivity.”

Last May, Biden said Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a cease-fire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and the reconstruction of Gaza.

Israeli Channel 13, citing Mossad sources, earlier said that Israeli officials were optimistic about reaching a deal to bring back Israeli hostages from Gaza.

The sources said Israel views the current moment as “opportune” for reaching an agreement with Hamas, with security authorities advising political leaders to capitalize on it.

For months, efforts by the US, Qatar, and Egypt to mediate an agreement between Israel and Hamas for a hostage exchange and cease-fire have been hampered by Netanyahu’s rejection of Hamas’s call to halt hostilities.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 38,150 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,800 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

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