Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that U.S. President Joe Biden presented only a partial outline of the agreed proposal to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of the Israeli hostages.
"There is more in the proposal that Biden did not mention," Netanyahu told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee adding he did not agree to end the war.
“As for the gaps, I don’t know what gaps you’re referring to,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said during a briefing with reporters.
He noted that Netanyahu’s foreign policy adviser had confirmed to The Times of London over the weekend that the offer detailed by Biden was indeed an Israeli proposal.
“We’re confident that [Biden’s speech] accurately reflects that [Israeli] proposal — a proposal that we worked with the Israelis on, so I know of no gaps to speak of,” Kirby said.
"We are working in countless ways to return our hostages. I think about them constantly, about their families and about their suffering. Therefore, we have gone a long way to return them while adhering to the objectives of the war, first and foremost the elimination of Hamas," Netanyahu said in a statement.
"We are insistent that we will achieve both. This is part of the outline, not something that I have just added. It is not something that I have added because of coalition pressure. This is something that we agreed on in the War Cabinet unanimously."
A senior political official said that in his meeting with lawmakers in the Knesset, Netanyahu said that as agreed in the war cabinet – Israel does not commit to ending the war before all its objectives are reached, adding that those objectives remain the destruction of Hamas's military and governing abilities, the release of all of the hostages and assurances that Gaza can no longer pose a security threat to Israel.
"According to the proposal, Israel will insist that phase two – a permanent cease-fire – would begin only after a full agreement of its terms," the officials said. "No later than the 16th day, negotiations will begin to reach an agreement on the terms for phase two. Israel will insist its conditions are accepted."
Far-right members of Netanyahu's coalition and ministers in the security cabinet, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich said they had not received answers to their questions about the proposal announced by U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday. "What do you have to hide, Mr. Prime Minister?" Ben Gvir asked in a televised address to his party members. "There can only be one answer and that is that this is a reckless proposition and now there is an effort to whitewash it."
He then repeated his threat to break up the coalition if Netanyahu signed a deal that would end the war without destroying Hamas.
Smotrich said the conduct of the war cabinet is dangerous and a failure. "They are again surrendering to Sinwar, erasing all the red lines and humiliating Israel while Hamas is fortified in its demands," he said but added that his party is committed to freeing the hostages.