Rafah, Palestinian Territories:

Hamas on Friday said it “considers positively” an Israeli roadmap towards a full Gaza ceasefire announced by US President Joe Biden, who urged an end to the almost eight-month war.

But swiftly afterwards, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poured cold water on Biden’s talk of peace, insisting the army would continue fighting until it had “eliminated” Hamas’s capacity to rule Gaza and pose a military threat.

Biden’s address came as Israeli troops pushed into central Rafah, escalating the war with Hamas despite international objections to any assault on the southern Gaza city.

Outlining how the war might end, Biden said Israel’s three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.

It would also see the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for (the) release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners”.

Israel and the Palestinians would then negotiate during those six weeks for a lasting ceasefire — but the truce would continue while the talks remained underway, Biden said.

The US president urged Hamas to accept the Israeli offer. “It’s time for this war to end, for the day after to begin,” he said, in comments echoed by British Foreign Secretary David Cameron.

Hamas in a statement on Friday evening said it “considers positively” Biden’s speech regarding “a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, reconstruction and the exchange of prisoners”.

UN chief Antonio Guterres “strongly hopes” the latest development “will lead to an agreement by the parties for lasting peace”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the Israeli offer “provides a glimpse of hope and a possible path out of the war’s deadlock”, while EU chief Ursula von der Leyen welcomed a “balanced and realistic” approach to end the bloodshed.

– Israel insists on war aims –

But Netanyahu took issue with Biden’s presentation of what was on the table, insisting the transition from one stage to the next in the proposed roadmap was “conditional” and crafted to allow Israel to maintain its war aims.

“The prime minister authorised the negotiating team to present an outline for achieving (the return of hostages), while insisting that the war will not end until all of its goals are achieved,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

Those aims include “the return of all our hostages and the elimination of Hamas’s military and governmental capabilities”, it added.

“The exact outline proposed by Israel, including the conditional transition from stage to stage, allows Israel to maintain these principles.”

Hamas has been careful about commenting on ceasefire proposals put to it by Egyptian, Qatari or US mediators. It accepted one earlier this year only for it to be disavowed by Israel.

Earlier on Friday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh accused Israel of “using negotiations as a cover to continue its aggression”, saying Hamas “refuses to be a part of these manoeuvres”.

Israel has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas since the Palestinian militant group attacked southern Israel on October 7.

Israel sent tanks and troops into Rafah in early May, ignoring concerns over the safety of displaced Palestinian civilians sheltering in the city on the Egyptian border.

On Friday, soldiers were operating in the city centre where they uncovered rocket launchers and tunnel shafts and dismantled a Hamas weapons storage facility, the army said.

– Blinken says aid situation ‘dire’ –

A stream of civilians has flooded out of Rafah, taking their belongings on their shoulders, in cars or on donkey-drawn carts.

Before the Rafah offensive began, the United Nations said up to 1.4 million people were sheltering in the city.

Since then, one million have fled the area, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, has said.

The Israeli seizure of the Rafah crossing has further slowed sporadic deliveries of aid for Gaza’s 2.4 million people and effectively shuttered the territory’s main exit point.

Israel said at the weekend that aid deliveries had been stepped up.

But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged Friday that the humanitarian situation was “dire” despite US efforts to bring in more assistance.

The World Food Programme said daily life had become “apocalyptic” in parts of southern Gaza since Israel began its assault on Rafah in early May.

Jordan announced it will host a summit on June 11, jointly organised with Egypt and the United Nations, bringing together aid agency chiefs and heads of donor governments to discuss the humanitarian response.

– ‘Everything is ashes’ –

The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,189 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Militants also took 252 hostages, 121 of whom remain in Gaza, including 37 the army says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,284 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

A medical official at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah said eight people, including two children, were killed in an air strike that hit a house in Al-Bureij refugee camp.

Another source at Nuseirat’s Al-Awda Hospital reported three deaths in a strike on a car.

In northern Gaza, witnesses said that after carrying out a three-week operation in the town of Jabalia and its neighbouring refugee camp, troops had ordered residents of nearby Beit Hanoun to evacuate ahead of an imminent assault.

The Israeli army said troops “completed their mission in eastern Jabalia and began preparation for continued operations in the Gaza Strip”.

Jabalia shopkeeper Belal al-Kahlot said there was nothing left of his store after the Israeli operation. “Everything is ashes.”

The Israeli military announced the deaths of two soldiers in Gaza, taking to 294 the number of Israeli troops killed since the start of ground operations in late October.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington DC:

Accepting a ceasefire deal with Israel should be a “no-brainer” for Hamas, but the motivations of the militants’ elusive Gaza-based leadership remain unclear, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has announced that its delegation will return Saturday to Cairo to resume long-running talks brokered by Egypt and Qatar that would temporarily halt Israel’s offensive in return for freeing hostages.

“We wait to see whether, in effect, they can take yes for an answer on the ceasefire and release of hostages,” Blinken said late Friday. 

“The reality in this moment is the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas.”

Noting that the militants “purport to represent” the Palestinian people, Blinken said: “If it is true, then taking the ceasefire should be a no-brainer.”

“But maybe something else is going on, and we’ll have a better picture of that in the coming days,” he said.

Blinken pointed to difficulties negotiating with Hamas, which the United States considers a terrorist group and does not engage with directly and which Israel has vowed to eliminate.

“The leaders of Hamas that we’re indirectly engaged with — through the Qataris, through the Egyptians — are, of course, living outside of Gaza,” Blinken said.

“The ultimate decision-makers are the folks who are actually in Gaza itself with whom none of us have direct contact.”

Blinken was addressing the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum in Arizona days after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top leaders on his latest visit to the Middle East.

Ahead of his talks with Blinken, Netanyahu vowed to push ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah regardless of the outcome of truce negotiations.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has repeatedly warned Israel against moving on Rafah, where an estimated 1.2 million Palestinians have taken shelter.

Blinken said that Israel, which counts on the United States for military and diplomatic support, has yet to present “a credible plan to genuinely protect the civilians who are in harm’s way”.

“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” Blinken said.

Global criticism of the war’s toll on civilians has mounted, as has pressure on the Biden administration.

The war broke out after Hamas’s October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also took around 250 hostages, of whom Israel estimates 128 remain in Gaza, including 35 believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 34,622 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Saudis want progress ‘as soon as possible’

Blinken on Monday held his latest meeting with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to discuss potential normalization with Israel.

“He’s made it clear that he wants to do something on normalization, and he’d like to do it as soon as possible,” but only if conditions are met, Blinken said.

Before Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Netanyahu had seen growing Arab recognition of Israel as a key legacy and Saudi Arabia, the guardian of Islam’s two holiest sites, would be the most coveted prize.

But Saudi Arabia has made clear it wants a pathway to a Palestinian state, a prospect long resisted by Netanyahu and adamantly opposed by his far-right allies.

“I believe that there can be a Palestinian state with necessary security guarantees for Israel,” Blinken said.

“And to some extent, I think you’d have Israelis who would like to get to real separation. Well, that is one way to do it.”

While in Saudi Arabia Blinken said that the United States was nearly ready with a set of security promises sought by the kingdom in return for normalization with Israel.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

A full ceasefire in Gaza would only help Hamas as Israel wages an air campaign against the militant group, but humanitarian “pauses” should be considered to let vital aid in, the White House said Tuesday.

The comments came as President Joe Biden said aid deliveries to the Palestinian enclave, under Israeli bombardment since the deadly Hamas attacks of October 7, were “not fast enough.”

“A ceasefire right now really only benefits Hamas,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists.

Thousands of people have been killed on both sides since Hamas attacked across the border, executing civilians and seizing hostages, with Israel retaliating with relentless strikes on the Gaza Strip.

UN chief Antonio Guterres earlier Tuesday urged an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as European Union leaders were considering a call for a pause in the fighting.

Kirby said that while Washington opposed a full ceasefire, stoppages in the fighting to facilitate the delivery of aid was “something that ought to be considered.”

“We want to see all measure of protection for civilians and pauses in an operation is a tool and a tactic that can do that for temporary periods of time,” he said.

“It’s not the same as saying a ceasefire.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier asked the UN Security Council to support a new US-led resolution on the conflict that would back “humanitarian pauses” to let in aid but not a full ceasefire.

Biden said Monday that “talk” about any ceasefire could only start once all of the more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas in the attack were released. 

Kirby meanwhile warned that while the United States had urged Israel to minimize civilian casualties, some were inevitable.

“This is war. It is combat. It is bloody, ugly and it’s going to be messy and innocent civilians are going to be hurt going forward,” Kirby said.

“I wish I could tell you something different and wish that there wasn’t going to happen, but it is going to happen. And that doesn’t make it right, doesn’t make it dismissible.”

Israel was left stunned and furious by the bloody attack on southern communities in which it says Hamas killed more than 1,400 people and took the hostages, including some Americans.

Israel has responded with heavy air and artillery strikes that have killed 5,791 in Gaza, according to the Hamas-ruled health ministry, and plunged the Palestinian territory into a dire humanitarian crisis.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)