Doubts grow over Gaza truce plan as Israel-Hamas battles rage
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On June 3, the Israeli military said that over the past day its forces had struck “over 50 targets in the Gaza Strip”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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RAFAH, Palestinian Territories - Doubts were growing on June 3 about a plan for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden as heavy fighting raged for a third day since his White House address.
Mr Biden on May 31 presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the bloody conflict,
“The outline that President Biden presented is partial,” Israeli government spokesman David Mencer quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying, adding in a press briefing that “the war will be stopped for the purpose of returning the hostages”, after which discussions will follow on how to achieve Israel’s goal of eliminating Hamas.
Mr Netanyahu, in a separate statement issued by his office, said “claims that we have agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met are incorrect”.
Israeli media questioned to what extent Mr Biden’s speech and some crucial details were coordinated with Mr Netanyahu’s team, including how long any truce would hold and how many captives would be freed.
Mediators the US, Qatar and Egypt later said they called on both Hamas and Israel to finalise the deal “embodying the principles outlined by President Joe Biden”.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on June 2 said “we have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal... that Israel would say yes”. And Secretary of State Antony Blinken “commended” Israel on the plan in a phone call with war Cabinet member Benny Gantz and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, the State Department said.
But for now, the bombardments and combat showed no sign of easing in the Gaza war, soon entering its ninth month that has devastated the Palestinian coastal territory of 2.4 million people.
On June 3, the Israeli military said its forces had struck “over 50 targets in the Gaza Strip”.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on June 3 reported at least 40 deaths over the past 24 hours.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’ Oct 7 attack
Israel’s retaliatory bombardments and ground offensive have killed at least 36,479 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on June 3.
Heavy fighting has raged, especially in Gaza’s far-southern Rafah area near the Egyptian border, where most civilians have again been displaced, said UN agencies.
Air strikes and artillery shelling were reported in Rafah, mainly in the Tal Al-Sultan neighbourhood, as well as in Gaza City, witnesses told AFP.
The army said: “Troops are continuing intelligence-based targeted operations in the Rafah area.
“Over the past day, the troops conducted scans and located terror infrastructure and large quantities of weapons.”
Gaza’s European hospital said 10 people were killed and several wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house near the main southern city of Khan Younis.
Six people were reported killed in a strike on a family home in the central Bureij refugee camp, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.
Post-war scenarios
Mr Netanyahu – a hawkish veteran leading a fragile coalition government often described as the most right-wing in Israel’s history – is under intense domestic pressure from two sides.
Relatives and supporters of hostages have staged mass protests
According to Mr Biden, Israel’s three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase that would see Israeli forces withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza and an initial hostage-prisoner exchange.
Both sides would then negotiate for a lasting ceasefire, with the truce to continue as long as talks are ongoing, Mr Biden said, adding it was “time for this war to end”.
Mr Netanyahu took issue with Mr Biden’s presentation, insisting that according to the “exact outline proposed by Israel” the transition from one stage to the next was “conditional” and crafted to allow it to maintain its war aims.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leaders of extreme-right parties, warned they would leave the government if it endorsed the truce proposal.
But opposition leader Yair Lapid, a centrist former premier, said the government “cannot ignore Biden’s important speech” and vowed to back Mr Netanyahu if his far-right coalition partners quit.
Mr Gallant, who has criticised Mr Netanyahu over the lack of a post-war plan for Gaza, said on June 2 that Israel was “assessing a governing alternative”
UN and other aid agencies have warned for months of the looming risk of famine
At a hospital in Deir al-Balah, 33-year-old Amira al-Taweel said her frail son, suffering from malnutrition, “needs treatment and milk, but there’s none available in Gaza”.
Israel’s seizure in May of the Rafah crossing has further slowed sporadic aid deliveries for Gaza’s people and effectively closed its main exit point on the Egyptian border. Cairo refuses to coordinate with Israel humanitarian deliveries through Rafah, but has agreed to send some aid via Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing. AFP
