Israeli PM contests Biden’s description of cease-fire agreement

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday denied rumors Israel had agreed to a cease-fire without its conditions being met. He made the comment in discussions with the Israeli Knesset’s, or parliament’s, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, according to a statement from his office.

Netanyahu said in a separate statement on Monday that Israel is doing everything it can to get its hostages home while achieving the other objectives of its war against Hamas in Gaza—primarily the complete elimination of the terrorist group.

What did Biden say was happening? U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that Israel had offered a three-phase cease-fire agreement, in which Israel would incrementally withdraw its troops from Gaza while Hamas incrementally returned both living and deceased hostages. Humanitarian aid would surge into the region amid the cessation of hostilities, followed by a holistic reconstruction of Gaza.

Biden said that last Thursday, Qatar transmitted the cease-fire agreement to Hamas officials and indicated it was up to the terrorists to accept it. In transcribed remarks discussing the cease-fire proposal, Biden acknowledged that not everyone in Israel supported the arrangement.

Have there been any developments on the ground in Gaza? The Israel Defense Forces on Monday said that it had notified the families of four more hostages that their loved ones were deceased. The military identified the four hostages as Haim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Koper, and Nadav Popelwell. The IDF said that Hamas still had possession of the four hostages’ bodies and that they had been kidnapped in the terrorist group’s attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed roughly 1,200 people.

How does Israel know that they’re dead? The Israeli military decided to declare the four hostages dead based on intelligence information, it said. The Israeli Ministry of Health approved the decision, and the Israeli Ministry of Religion and the Chief Rabbi of Israel provided their input.

Dig deeper: Read A.S. Ibrahim’s column in WORLD Opinions arguing that Palestinians’ opposition to Israel’s existence and founding have held them back for decades.