Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant said today that Israel, while carrying out military operations in the Gaza Strip, is "preparing an alternative government" for the area after the war, instead of the Palestinian movement Hamas, against which it is at war.
Already in mid-May, Galant expressed his opposition to Israel's military and political control over the Gaza Strip, where the Islamist movement Hamas took power in 2007.
"While we are carrying out important military actions, the Ministry of Defense is simultaneously preparing an alternative to the rule of Hamas," Galant said, his ministry reported.
During a meeting with the army near the border with Gaza, Galant said there was a "framework" for "isolating zones" in Gaza from Hamas fighters and for "the introduction of other forces that will enable the formation of an alternative to Hamas rule."
On May 15, the Defense Minister directly confronted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who believes that talking about the future of the Gaza Strip is futile before the destruction of Hamas.
Galant assured that "the military operation on the one hand and the creation of provisions for an alternative government on the other will allow us to achieve the two goals of this war: the elimination of Hamas as the authority in Gaza and the return of the hostages" who were kidnapped by Hamas in Israel on October 7 last year which started the war.
"We will not accept Hamas rule in Gaza at any stage of the process necessary to end the war," he continued.
Galan also assured that the military operation launched at the beginning of May on the city of Rafah, in the extreme south of the Gaza Strip, is taking place "both above and below the ground" - on the surface and in the tunnels of Hamas where its infrastructure is located.
(BETA)
The Israeli army attacked several areas in the Gaza Strip, including Rafah, today, a day after an urgent appeal by international mediators for Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas to conclude a peace deal to end the war that has lasted more than seven months.
In the south of Gaza, "Apache" helicopters, according to eyewitnesses, opened fire on the center of Rafah, and the southern and western parts of the city were also targeted.
In the north, Gaza City was attacked from the air, killing three Palestinians, including a woman and a child, in a bombing that destroyed their home in the Al Daraj neighborhood, a hospital source said.
The Israeli army announced that it was carrying out targeted operations in Rafah and in central Gaza, and that "24 terrorist targets, including weapons depots and armed cells" were targeted in the past 30 hours.
Hostilities continue despite urgent calls for a ceasefire, and according to the Hamas Health Ministry, at least 36.439 people have died in the Gaza Strip so far.
The mediators in the truce negotiations, Qatar, the US and Egypt, jointly called on Hamas and Israel on Saturday to finalize the agreement based on the principles presented by US President Joseph Biden.
On Friday, Biden presented a so-called road map with the aim of achieving a permanent ceasefire in stages and under certain conditions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then confirmed Israel's conditions for a permanent ceasefire - the destruction of Hamas and the release of hostages.
He is under great pressure from two far-right ministers who are threatening to quit the government if the fighting stops before Hamas is destroyed.
Meanwhile, many Israelis continue to protest in the streets demanding an agreement to release the hostages. Hamas said it had considered Biden's proposal, reiterating its demands for a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, terms Israel has rejected.
Ofir Falk, senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, confirmed today that Israel has agreed to the framework of the cease-fire agreement in the Gaza war presented by US President Joseph Biden on Friday, adding that a lot of work is still needed to finalize that plan.
"There are a lot of details that need to be worked out, including the fact that there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our goals are achieved," Falk told Britain's Sunday Times, according to Israeli media.
Falk stressed that Israel is not rejecting the deal, which he said is not good, but that the Israelis are eager to see all the hostages released.
He added, repeating what Netanyahu had said earlier, that Israel's conditions had not changed: the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas.
He also said that Biden's address was a "political speech".
Biden presented that plan as an Israeli proposal, which caused a shock in the Israeli government and threats from ultra-right parties to overthrow the ruling coalition, if Netanyahu approves it.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog, whose role in Israel's political life is mostly ceremonial, but whose opinion has an impact on the public, has meanwhile announced support for Netanyahu, if the plan begins to be implemented.
Biden said he submitted a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages to Hamas on Thursday.
The American leader presented some key elements of that proposed agreement and appealed to Hamas to accept it, but also to the Government of Israel to stand behind it.
In addition, he announced that based on this agreement, all hostages will return home, ensure Israel's security and create better days for Gaza without Hamas in power. He added that this will enable a political solution that provides a better future for both peoples, but he did not specify how Hamas would be overthrown from power.
And although he said that the latest proposal was made by Israel, and that it was probably approved by the war cabinet, Biden obviously admitted that it was not the last word of that country and appealed to the entire government to stand behind the offer that the Israeli negotiators submitted through intermediaries. to Hamas.
Israel's war cabinet includes Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galant and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz, now the leader of the National Unity Party, which was in opposition until the start of the war.
Netanyahu himself said on Saturday that there will be no permanent ceasefire in Gaza until Hamas' military forces and governance capabilities are destroyed.
Gantz called for the war cabinet to meet as soon as possible, to formulate the next steps, which could be a hint that the proposal has already been accepted by the entire war cabinet. In order for the agreement to be accepted, however, the approval of the entire government is needed.
(Beta)
The Israeli army announced that it was carrying out targeted operations in Rafah and in central Gaza, and that "24 terrorist targets, including weapons depots and armed cells" were targeted in the past 30 hours.
Hostilities continue despite urgent calls for a ceasefire, and according to the Hamas Health Ministry, at least 36.379 people have died in the Gaza Strip so far.
The mediators in the truce negotiations, Qatar, the US and Egypt, jointly called on Hamas and Israel on Saturday to finalize the agreement based on the principles presented by US President Joseph Biden.
On Friday, Biden presented a so-called road map with the aim of achieving a permanent ceasefire in stages and under certain conditions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu then confirmed Israel's conditions for a permanent ceasefire - the destruction of Hamas and the release of hostages.
He is under great pressure from two far-right ministers who are threatening to quit the government if the fighting stops before Hamas is destroyed.
Meanwhile, many Israelis continue to protest in the streets, demanding an agreement to release the hostages.
Hamas said it had considered Biden's proposal, reiterating its demands for a permanent ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, terms Israel has rejected.
(BETA)
Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked US President Joseph Biden today for his speech in which he presented Israel's proposal for an agreement on the release of hostages and "its efforts to free all detainees held by Hamas in Gaza".
Herzog also said at a conference at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that he announced to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his support for the agreement on the release of the hostages.
"We must not forget that, according to Jewish tradition, there is no greater commandment than the redemption of prisoners and hostages, especially when it comes to citizens of Israel whom the State of Israel was unable to defend," Herzog said at the conference named after his late father Haim Herzog. to the former president of Israel.
"It is our inherited obligation to return them home within the framework of an agreement that will preserve the security interests of the State of Israel," concluded Herzog.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, called on Biden to explain that the cease-fire agreement in the Gaza war and the hostages he unveiled on Friday would not prevent Israel from destroying Hamas.
Graham announced on Platform X that the defeat of Hamas, which he called a "barbaric terrorist organization", is not only in the interest of the region but also of the United States.
He insists that Biden "must be crystal clear that this cease-fire proposal does not prevent Israel from continuing military operations to destroy Hamas and ensure that they have no role in the future."
In a speech on Friday, the US leader unveiled what he said was Israel's latest proposal for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the war in Gaza and called on Hamas to accept the offer.
Biden presented the details of the three phases, with special emphasis on the first, which would last six weeks, much like the framework discussed in earlier negotiations, but which includes some new conditions.
(BETA)
Chilean President Gabriel Boric has said that his country is joining South Africa in a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of genocide in the war in the Gaza Strip.
Addressing the National Congress on Saturday, Boric condemned the "catastrophic humanitarian situation" in Gaza and called for a "firm response from the international community."
"Chile will become a party in support of South Africa's case presented against Israel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague," Boric said in Valparaiso.
The ICJ, meanwhile, ruled on preliminary measures, ordering Israel to do everything it can to prevent "acts of genocide" in its military campaign against Hamas.
Chile recognized the state of Palestine in 2011.
Borić said a few months ago that the war in Gaza has no justification and is unacceptable.
(BETA)
The leaders of two ultra-right Israeli parties, who are also members of the Government, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir threatened last night to overthrow the government if it accepts the newly proposed agreement on the release of hostages and a ceasefire.
Both claim that the agreement will lead to the end of the war, and the key war goal of destroying Hamas will not be achieved, and announced that they will withdraw their parties from the coalition if it is accepted, Israeli media reported.
Smotrich's Religious Zionism party and Ben Gvir's Jewish Force (Ocma Yehudit) won 14 parliamentary seats when they ran together in the 2022 elections and are key to the ruling majority of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition of 64 deputies in the 120-member parliament (Knesset). .
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid had earlier promised to ensure that Netanyahu's government does not fall, but would not support him on other issues.
Lapid, leader of the center party There is a Future (Yesh Atid), said Israel must accept the deal now "before the hostages die."
A member of the war cabinet, the leader of the center-right National Union party, Benny Gantz, called for that cabinet to meet as soon as possible and formulate the steps leading forward, and the Israeli media reports that this is a hint that the proposal has already been accepted.
Gantz joined the coalition shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel and threatened to leave if Netanyahu did not take a series of strategic steps on the war by June 8.
Gantz's party, however, has only eight mandates and Netanyahu can hold on to power without him, but he cannot do so in the long term without the ultra-right.
In a speech on Friday, US President Joseph Biden presented Israel's new proposal for a ceasefire and the release of the hostages handed over to Hamas by Qatar on Thursday.
The American leader appealed to Hamas to accept the agreement and the Government of Israel to stand behind it.
Biden said the offer would "bring all the hostages home, ensure Israel's security and create a better day after in Gaza without Hamas in power and pave the way for a political solution that provides a better future for Israel and the Palestinians," but did not specify how Hamas would be ousted from authorities.
Earlier on Saturday, Netanyahu said there would be no permanent ceasefire until Hamas' military and leadership capabilities were destroyed.
An anonymous Israeli official said that "Israel's terms for the end of the war have not changed" and that they include "the destruction of Hamas' civilian and military capabilities, the release of hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel."
The Israeli proposal, the official said, would ensure that Israel meets all of those conditions before a permanent cease-fire goes into effect.
Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist partners in the coalition have said that nothing other than the destruction of Hamas is acceptable to them.
Smotrich said that his party demands that the fight continue until this is achieved.
Ben Gvir assessed that the proposed agreement would mean the end of the war and giving up on the destruction of Hamas, and that it would be a victory for terrorism and a security risk for the State of Israel.
(BETA)
Several thousand Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv yesterday to demand that Benjamin Netanyahu's government reach an agreement to release the hostages, a plan unveiled by US President Joseph Biden on Friday.
"Biden is our only hope," one protester told AFP.
The US president said on Friday that he has proposed to Israel a road map to a complete ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which includes the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip.
In Tel Aviv, protesters waved a huge banner reading "Biden, save them from Netanyahu."
The vast majority of protesters interviewed by AFP expressed fear that Benjamin Netanyahu would jeopardize the deal.
"I hope Biden will put enough pressure on the government and Netanyahu to accept such a deal," said one protester holding an Israeli flag.
The Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons said it would "demand that the Israeli government immediately approve an agreement to release the hostages and bring all hostages home immediately."
(BETA)
Conflict between Israel and Hamas - 240th day.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was delighted to be invited to address the US Congress amid the war between his country and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu's office said.
House Republican Leader Mike Johnson said Friday that Netanyahu had been invited by Republican and Democratic leaders to speak before Congress.
The date has not yet been announced, but US media have hinted that Netanyahu could speak to Congress shortly before or after the summer recess in August.
"I welcome the privilege of representing Israel before both houses of Congress and telling them the truth about our just war against those who want to kill us," Netanyahu said.
"We stand with the State of Israel in its fight against terrorism, especially at this time when Hamas is still holding American and Israeli citizens captive and its leaders are threatening regional stability," the four congressional representatives said in a letter to Netanyahu.
(BETA)
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