Israel’s military says four more Gaza hostages dead: Live updates and news

The domestic difficulties facing Netanyahu became clear on Monday when far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a key figure in his ruling coalition, reiterated that he would not accept the latest proposal as long as Hamas remained intact.

He said his party would withdraw from the government if Israel pushed ahead with such a deal. Without Ben-Gvir’s six parliamentary seats, Netanyahu would likely struggle to stay in office.

Hamas has said it was “positive” about the proposal put forward by Mr Biden, but has not said whether it would accept it. On Sunday, Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told an Egyptian broadcaster that “the ball” was now “in Israel’s court”.

Another far-right politician, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, threatened to overthrow the government if it agreed to the proposal. “If the government – God forbid – decides to accept this surrender proposal, we will no longer be part of it and will take measures to replace the failing leadership with a new one that knows how to defeat Hamas and win the war,” he said.

Netanyahu assured lawmakers in a closed session that Israel’s latest proposal would not end the war without an end to Hamas rule in Gaza. He said it would allow Israel to continue fighting Hamas until all war goals were achieved, including destroying the military and governance capabilities of the group that led the deadly Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.

“The claims that we agreed to a ceasefire without our conditions being met are false,” Netanyahu told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, according to a statement from his office.

The prime minister expressed openness to a 42-day pause in the fighting – part of the first phase of what U.S. officials have described as an Israeli-proposed three-phase deal – but rejected a complete end to the war without a Hamas defeat or surrender, according to a person present at the committee meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to reveal details of the closed-door discussion.

Mr Netanyahu also claimed that President Biden did not present the “big picture” of the latest ceasefire proposal when he discussed the issue last week, the person who was at the meeting said.

In his speech on Friday, Biden went into unusual detail about what he called the new Israeli framework, saying it amounted to a roadmap for a “permanent ceasefire” and saying that if Hamas adhered to its terms, it would lead to a “permanent cessation of hostilities.”

Two Israeli officials confirmed that Mr Biden’s offer was broadly consistent with the recent ceasefire proposal put forward by Israel in talks brokered by Qatar and Egypt and supported by the United States.

On Monday, an official close to Ben-Gvir said he was supposed to meet with Netanyahu to discuss Israel’s latest ceasefire offer and review a written version. But the minister said on Monday afternoon that officials in the prime minister’s office had refused to show him the document. He did not mention a meeting with Netanyahu.

The minister said he later received a call from Tzachi Hanegbi, the prime minister’s national security adviser, who claimed there was no written version of the proposal.

Shira Efron, a senior director of policy research at the Israel Policy Forum, said that while Ben-Gvir and Smotrich formed a “unique coalition” and had influence in key ministries, they were willing to take risks that could lead to the loss of their decision-making power.

“They are true ideologists,” she said in an interview.