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US President Joe Biden has said “there is every reason” for people to conclude that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the war with Hamas for his own political survival.
Biden’s comments, published in an interview with Time magazine on Tuesday, come as he increases diplomatic efforts to bring the Israel-Hamas war to an end.
On Friday Biden announced what he said was a three-phase Israeli plan to help end the war in Gaza, starting with a six week ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages held by Hamas that would eventually lead to longer-term measures resulting in a permanent end to hostilities.
He publicly appealed to Hamas and to the extremist right-wing members of Netanyahu’s coalition government to engage seriously with the proposal.
The announcement has been followed by a flurry of co-ordinated diplomatic activity that has garnered considerable international backing for the proposal.
Netanyahu has been vague about the proposal, telling a Knesset committee on Monday that the war could be “stopped for the purpose of returning hostages” but what followed would depend on “further discussions”. He added that Biden had not revealed all the details of a possible deal.
When asked in the interview whether Netanyahu was prolonging the war against Hamas to remain in power, Biden replied: “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.”
He added: “Bibi [Netanyahu] is under enormous pressure on the hostages and so he’s prepared to do about anything to get the hostages back.”
Biden also described the Israeli proposal as “very generous”, and said White House officials have laid out a five-year reconstruction plan for the devastated enclave if the war ends.
On Monday the leaders of the G7 issued a statement backing the plan, while the US circulated a draft resolution at the UN Security Council seeking its backing so as to push Hamas to accept the deal.
Washington’s diplomatic efforts coupled with Biden’s criticism of the Israeli leader have increased the pressure on Netanyahu to reject demands by his far-right coalition allies to reject any deal that is contingent on a lasting ceasefire.
The efforts to secure a release of the hostages held by Hamas became even more urgent after Israel’s military confirmed on Monday that four had been killed in Gaza. Israel estimates that almost a third of the 124 people that were still being held are now dead.
Biden has also spoken to Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, urging him “to use all appropriate measures to secure Hamas’s acceptance of the deal”.
The White House has also sought to get Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who backs Hamas’s political goals, to declare his support the deal.
US officials acknowledged that it was unusual for the president to publicly back a proposal to end the conflict after others have failed.
“The president felt that where we are in this war, where we are in the negotiations to get the hostages out, that it was time for a different approach and a time to make the proposal public, to try to energise the process here, catalyse a different outcome,” said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
The current deal, while more ambitious than the last hostage-for-prisoner swap, envisions a first six-week phase where Israeli civilians and female soldiers held by Hamas are traded for Palestinian prisoners, before moving to a second phase where male soldiers are freed for a longer-term ceasefire.
It would then move to an effort to seek security arrangements and reconstruction for the Gaza Strip, but Biden acknowledged in the interview that he and Netanyahu remained far apart on the details.
“My major disagreement with Netanyahu is, what happens after, what happens after Gaza’s over? What does it go back to? Do Israeli forces go back in? . . . The answer is, if that’s the case, it can’t work,” he said.
Hamas has signalled its “readiness to deal positively” with the proposal, tying its posture to the ceasefire, followed by reconstruction for the devastated enclave dangled by Biden.
Hamas spokesperson Osama Hamdan told journalists in Beirut on Tuesday that the group was concerned Israel would resume the war after the first batch of hostages was released, and was seeking assurances over the terms of the ceasefire and subsequent withdrawal of Israeli troops before proceeding with the talks.
“That’s what can open the door wider to an agreement — as long as this position is not clear, we will not agree to any deal,” he said. “We now wait for the clear Israeli position on this question.”
Hamas killed at least 1,200 people, including civilians and soldiers, in Israel on October 7, and took some 240 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s retaliatory war in the blockaded Gaza Strip has killed at least 36,470 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local officials.
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