Biden’s Gaza plan ‘not a good deal’ but Israel accepts it, Netanyahu aide says
- Netanyahu aide Ophir Falk discusses Biden-backed Israel plan for war-torn Gaza
- More than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas
An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by US President Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work.
In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal was “a deal we agreed to – it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them”.
“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organisation” have not changed.
Later on Sunday, the US State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate phone calls about the proposal with Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, a centrist minister who joined Netanyahu in an emergency coalition.
In the call with Gantz, Blinken “emphasised that Hamas should take the deal without delay,” the department said in a statement.
