Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he is interested in a "partial deal" with Hamas that will free "some of the hostages" held in Gaza and allow Israel to continue fighting in the enclave.
Why it matters: Netanyahu's remarks walk back an Israeli proposal for a three-phase deal that would lead to the release of all remaining 120 hostages and to "sustainable calm" in Gaza.
- More than 37,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials.
- Netanyahu's comments contradicted statements by Biden administration officials who in recent days said Netanyahu and his aides had reiterated their support for the proposal.
- In recent weeks, Netanyahu's radical right-wing coalition partners, ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, threatened to leave the coalition and topple the government if the proposal turns into an agreement.
Flashback: The proposal was approved by the Israeli war cabinet in late May and was presented publicly by President Biden in a speech on May 31.
- The Biden administration mobilized broad international support for the proposal and managed to get the UN Security Council to pass a resolution endorsing it.
- Hamas officially responded to the proposal nearly two weeks after Biden's speech. The group asked for changes in the proposal and raised new demands that went beyond its own previous positions, * U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on June 12.
- Blinken said at the time that while Israel accepted the proposal, Hamas didn't
Driving the news: Netanyahu remarks were part of an interview with Israel's Channel 14, a pro-Netanyahu television channel.
- When Netanyahu was asked if he agreed to end the war as part of a hostage deal he said he didn't. "I will not stop the war and leave Hamas standing in Gaza," he said.
- "I am ready to do a partial deal, it is no secret, that will bring back some of the people. But we are committed to continue the war after the pause in order to achieve the goal of destroying Hamas. I will not give up on this," he added.
Between the lines: Netanyahu claimed his position "was no secret" but it was the first time that he spoke publicly about a "partial deal" or suggested he hadn't intended to implement all three phases in the Israeli proposal.
What they're saying: The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, an NGO that represents most of the hostages' families and is pushing for their release, attacked Netanyahu for his remarks.
- "We strongly condemn the Prime Minister's statement in which he walked back from the Israeli proposal. This means he is abandoning 120 hostages and harms the moral duty of the state of Israel to its citizens," they said.
The big picture: The Israeli Prime Minister's remarks are likely to increase tensions between the Israeli government and the White House, which have grown in recent days over Netanyahu's claims that the Biden administration is withholding weapons from Israel.
- Netanyahu said on Sunday at the start of a cabinet meeting that there was a dramatic decrease in the munitions coming to Israel from the U.S. beginning four months ago.
- "For long weeks, we turned to our American friends and requested that the shipments be expedited. We did this time and again. We did so at the highest levels, and at all levels, and we did so behind closed doors. We received all sorts of explanations, but the basic situation did not change. Certain items arrived sporadically but the munitions at large remained behind," he said.
- Netanyahu claimed that only after there was no change in the shipments, he decided to go public in order to "open the bottleneck".
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