Two days after U.S. President Joe Biden laid out what he called an Israeli proposal to end its war on Hamas, it’s clear that key aspects of the deal have not, in fact, been embraced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As the war in Gaza approaches its eighth month, the impasse between Israel and Hamas over exchanging hostages for prisoners remains unchanged: Israel will pause fighting but not end it as long as Hamas’s governing and military structures remain intact, while Hamas will free hostages only if it’s guaranteed a permanent ceasefire.
Biden said Israel has battered Hamas enough to prevent it from carrying out another attack like the one on Oct. 7, when it killed some 1,200 Israelis and took 250 hostages, and that the time has come to end the war, free the hostages and start to rebuild the badly destroyed Gaza Strip.
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