For Hamas It is not possible to accept an agreement that does not guarantee a clear position on Israel’s part on a permanent ceasefire and that does not provide for a complete withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from the Gaza Strip. So a senior Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdanunderlining that ”there will be no agreement with Israel on the exchange of prisoners” if the IDF does not stop the war.
”We asked the mediators to get a clear Israeli position for a permanent ceasefire and a complete withdrawal from Gaza,” Hamdan said at a press conference in Beirut. ”The occupation just wants to reach a stage where they get the prisoners back and then resume the war. Without a clear position from Israel regarding preparations for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal from Gaza, there will be no agreement. We are waiting for her,” he reiterated.
Tomorrow Meanwhile, an Egyptian delegation will meet their counterparts from Qatar and the United States in Doha in an attempt to relaunch negotiationswrites Al Arabiya, citing Egyptian state TV and the Al-Qahera News television channel.
CIA director Bill Burns is also currently traveling to Doha, while President Biden’s Middle East advisor Brett McGurk is heading to Cairo in an attempt to push the deal, the news portal reported Axios.
Qatar: “There is no approval for the Biden plan”
”There is no clear position”, no ”concrete approval” either on the Israeli side or on the part of Hamas regarding the plan presented by the Biden Administration for a ceasefire in the Strip, declared this morning the spokesman for the Qatari Foreign Ministry Majed al-Ansari, according to whom it is clear that ”no one can achieve a total victory in this war”. And ”there are no other options on the field” to end the war other than to sit at the negotiating table and reach an agreement, he underlines. ”I think it’s very clear to the international community that saying you can wipe out Hamas, or put aside the Palestinian issue altogether, is just going to produce more violence,” al-Ansari said.
During a press conference in Doha, the spokesperson for Qatar, a country involved in mediation between the parties, stated that there have not yet been ”concrete approvals” from either party to the proposal on the table. “There have been statements from Israeli ministers that don’t give us much confidence that there is a unified position in Israel regarding the current proposal on the table,” al-Ansari said. ”However, we can also see positive momentum on both sides,” he added, according to what was reported by al-Jazeera.
What ”as an international community we must” do is ”exert pressure on both sides to accept the proposals on the field and immediately put an end to everything” that is happening between Hamas and Israel. But this can only be achieved if, he stressed, ”all of us work together to make sure that both sides understand that they need to get a solution now.”
Biden: “Main disagreement with Netanyahu concerns post-war”
“I’m not going to comment,” but “there is every reason to draw that conclusion.” The president of the United States, Joe Biden, said this to Time, answering the question of whether he agreed with those in Israel who believe that the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prolonging the war in Gaza for his own political interests.
“My main disagreement with Netanyahu is: what will happen after” the war in Gaza, Biden then declared, specifying that he had spoken about it with the governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Emirates. If the scenario involves a return of Israeli forces to the Palestinian enclave, “it cannot work,” Biden said, underlining the need for “a transition to a two-state solution.”
“The latest offer that Israel made was very generous in terms of who it would be willing to release, what it would give in exchange, etc. Bibi (Netanyhu, ed.) is under enormous pressure on the hostages so he is ready for anything even if to bring them back,” the president of the United States said.
“I don’t think so. He’s trying to solve a serious problem he has,” the president then said, correcting his response to the question of whether the Israeli prime minister was “playing politics with war.”
Netanyahu gives approval to temporary truce
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ”does not agree with the end of the war” in the Strip, underlining that “the plan presented by Biden is partial” and “not accurate”, with some “gaps” compared to the Israel’s proposal. Speaking before members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, Netanyahu underlined that ‘‘the war will be stopped in order to return the hostages and then we will discuss“.
And it remains the date on which Netanyahu will address the American Congress is still uncertainwhile that of June 13th seems to have been set aside – which an assistant to the Congressional leadership had spoken about yesterday – because it coincides with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, as well as with the visit to Italy of American President Joe Biden for the G7.
The speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, announced that there are various options under consideration. “We’re trying to organize it for a period of time within the next two weeks and we feel a sense of urgency, both from us and from the prime minister, so I hope we can,” he said, adding: “We’ve got a couple of options that his staff and mine are evaluating, so we will resolve.”
A source familiar with the organization, cited by CNN, claims that Netanyahu will probably come to Congress in July. The Israeli prime minister was invited a few days ago by the 4 leaders – Republicans and Democrats – of the House and Senate to intervene. Nothing had been said about a possible meeting at the White House for the occasion.
Herzog: “Full support for an agreement that releases hostages and guarantees security”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he would give his ”full support to any agreement” that could lead to the release of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip and that would preserve ”Israel’s security interests”. Speaking on ‘X’, Herzog ”reaffirmed my clear and firm position: there is no mitzvah (good deed, ed.) greater than the return of prisoners”.
Israel believes more than a third of the hostages are dead
Israel believes more than a third of the hostages in Gaza are dead. Of the approximately 250 people captured on October 7, dozens were freed during the November truce, while some bodies were recovered by Israeli troops inside the Strip.
According to the Israeli government, 120 prisoners remain, 43 of whom have been declared dead based on various sources of information. Hamas said several prisoners were killed in Israeli airstrikes or died from untreated wounds due to the lack of medical care in Gaza.
Request for Netanyahu’s arrest, US House approves sanctions for International Court
The US House of Representatives has passed a bill to sanction the International Criminal Court for seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The bill passed with 247 votes in favor against 155: 42 Democrats also voted in favor with 205 Republicans.
Gaza: 36,550 people killed since October 7
The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7 has risen to at least 36,550, including 71 in the last 24 hours. This was announced by the Gaza Ministry of Health. At least 82,959 people were injured, including 182 in the last day, according to the latest data.
And I’m around 15,000 minors killed according to the Palestinian Authority-run Education Ministry in Ramallah, adding that most of them died in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem and were mostly students or pre-school children. “Israel destroyed schools and nurseries and targeted civilians, particularly children, who were forcibly displaced, detained or deprived of access to food and medical care,” the ministry said.
Draft US resolution at the UN
The United States submitted a resolution to the United Nations Security Council in support of President Biden’s proposal. “Numerous leaders and governments, including from the region, have supported the plan and We ask the Security Council to join them in calling for the implementation of this agreement without postponement and without further conditions,” said the American ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, announcing the text.
The ambassador recalled that “the members of the Council have always asked for the steps outlined in this agreement: bringing the hostages home, ensure a complete ceasefireenable the scale-up of humanitarian assistance to Gaza and the restructuring of essential services, and lay the foundations for a long-term reconstruction plan for Gaza.” Therefore, he concluded, “Council members should not miss this opportunity“.
Hezbollah: “Ready for total war with Israel”. Israel’s response
Hezbollah’s number two, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said the Lebanese group has decided not to expand the scope of its operations but is ready to do so if forced to. Speaking to al Jazeera, Qassem said that “Hezbollah is ready for battle and will not allow Israel to achieve any victory.” “Any Israeli expansion of the war on Lebanon will be met with devastation, destruction and displacement in Israel,” he added. “If Israel wants to fight an all-out war, we are ready.”
Israeli forces have completed “an excellent training process” and are now ready to launch “an attack” against Hezbollah, which is already “paying a very, very high price”, replied Israeli Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi , during a visit to the north of the Jewish state. “We are approaching the point where a decision will have to be made and the IDF is very prepared for this decision,” added Halevi, quoted by the Jerusalem Post.
8 Hamas police officers killed in Gaza
Eight members of the Hamas-run police force were killed in an IDF drone attack while traveling in their vehicle in central Gaza. Ynet News reports it.
Israel purchases third squadron of F-35s from the US
Israel has meanwhile purchased a third squadron of F-35s from the United States. The agreement, which includes 25 stealth fighters built by Lockheed Martin, is worth three billion dollars and was made official by the Tel Aviv Ministry of Defense.
The planes will be delivered starting from 2028, in groups of three to five each year, and will increase the number of F-35s available to the Jewish state to 75. The signing of the agreement came after a dispute between Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich, with the latter having vetoed the operation until a Knesset commission on the matter was convened. defense budget.
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