U.S. President Joe Biden said Monday he hopes to see a new Gaza cease-fire by early next week, as delegations from several countries work to negotiate the first halt in fighting since late November.
“My national security adviser tells me that we’re close,” Biden told reporters in New York. “We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a cease-fire.”
Negotiators have been working toward an agreement that would pause fighting for six weeks. The deal would include the release of hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza, as well as the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza each day would also be part of the agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a temporary cease-fire would not change Israel’s plans to eventually carry out an offensive in the southern town of Rafah to achieve Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas.
Prospects of a Rafah operation have raised international alarms because of the large number of Palestinians who are living there, many of them after fleeing other parts of Gaza in search of safety.
Netanyahu’s office said Monday the Israeli military gave his war Cabinet “a plan for evacuating the population from the areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip, and with the upcoming operational plan.”
The United States, Israel’s chief ally in its nearly five-month war against Hamas, has warned Israel against a ground offensive in Rafah, just north of the Gaza border with Egypt, without first safely evacuating the Palestinians sheltering there.
The Netanyahu statement Monday did not give any details about where Israel plans to send the Palestinians and Egypt has said it will not open its borders. Much of Gaza, the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea, has been leveled during Israel’s massive counteroffensive after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack killed 1,200 people in Israel.
Nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the majority women and children, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry. Israel says it has killed 12,000 Hamas fighters.
The United Nations has expressed concern about any plan to move the civilian population from southern Gaza and about Israeli plans to launch an offensive in the area populated by people already in need of humanitarian aid.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that humanitarian assistance in Gaza remains “completely insufficient,” and that an Israeli offensive in Rafah would greatly harm those efforts.
“An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there; it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programs,” Guterres said.
Israel reported Monday that it killed dozens of militants in the Zeytoun area, east of Gaza City in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as well as in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military also said Monday it was carrying out strikes “deep in Lebanon” targeting the militant group Hezbollah. Security sources said the strikes targeted sites near the city of Baalbek, with Hezbollah saying two people were killed.
Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded fire across their border throughout the war, which has helped fuel fears of a widening conflict in the Middle East.
Earlier Monday, Israel said a missile intercepted one of its drones as it flew over Lebanon. Hezbollah said its air defense had shot down the Israeli drone.
Hamas captured about 250 hostages in its October attack. About 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November. The Israeli military says it believes about 30 hostages held by Hamas have subsequently died or been killed in Gaza.
Source: voanews.com
