The “intensive” phase of Israel’s offensive in Gaza will soon end, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday — but he signaled he would only accept a “partial” cease-fire deal that would not end the war, and that this new phase would allow a shift in focus to the simmering conflict on the country’s northern border with Lebanon.
Netanyahu’s comments appeared to back further away from a United States-supported truce deal with Hamas, setting the stage for his latest clash with the Biden administration and with the families of hostages still held in Gaza. They also fueled new international concern about escalation with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah that could ignite a broader regional conflict.
Speaking with Channel 14 on Sunday, in what appeared to be his first major interview with an Israeli media outlet since Oct. 7, Netanyahu said that the current phase of fighting was set to wind down.
“The intensive phase of the war against Hamas is about to end. It doesn’t mean that the war is about to end but its intensive phase is about to end in Rafah,” he said, referring to the city once deemed a safe zone in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
“We will continue afterward to mow the lawn, we will not give up on that,” Netanyahu said, speaking in Hebrew.
After this, “we will have the option to move part of the force to the north. We will do that,” he said.
The Israeli leader also said he was “ready to make a partial deal” that would secure the release of “some of the hostages,” but reiterated that Israel would continue its offensive in Gaza even if there was a cease-fire “to achieve the goal of eliminating” Hamas.
Hamas seized upon Netanyahu’s comments, saying his bid for a partial deal was a “clear rejection” of the proposal outlined by President Joe Biden for a comprehensive three-phase agreement to release the hostages and bring an end to the fighting in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office responded late Sunday, saying it was Hamas “which opposes a deal, not Israel.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that we will not leave Gaza until we return all 120 of our hostages, living and deceased,” it said.
Washington has also previously maintained that it was Hamas holding up negotiations to strike a deal.
But the families of the remaining hostages also hit out at Netanyahu, suggesting he had backed away from the U.S. proposal.
A group representing them condemned his statement, which it said “abandons 120 hostages and violates the state’s moral obligation to its citizens.”
The Israeli leader has continued to flout pressure from at home and abroad to strike a cease-fire deal with Hamas, as well as to reduce tensions at Israel’s northern border with Lebanon to avoid an all-out war with Hezbollah.
His comments heightened international alarm, with the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warning that the “risk of a full-blown conflict involving Hezbollah is real.”
The top U.S. military officer also warned Sunday that any Israeli military offensive into Lebanon would risk inviting an Iranian response that could endanger U.S. troops in the region.
Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that while Tehran already supports Hamas militants in Gaza, it would likely give greater support to the Lebanon-based group “particularly if they felt that Hezbollah was being significantly threatened.”
The comments came as Israel and the U.S. continued to clash over weapons shipments.
Speaking Sunday during a visit to Washington, Israeli Defense MInister Yoav Gallant maintained that Israeli officials were “committed to ensuring a strong U.S.-Israel alliance” and stressed that the U.S. was “the most important ally of Israel — and more central than ever before.”
Yet Netanyahu on Sunday repeated accusations that the U.S. was withholding weapons from Israel, a claim the Biden administration has rejected.
More than 37,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including many children, according to local health officials, since Israel launched its deadly offensive following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli officials. More than 100 are thought to remain captive in Gaza, with at least a third believed to be dead.
Humanitarian group Save the Children warned Monday of an increasingly dire situation for young Palestinians, revealing an estimate that up to 21,000 children in Gaza had gone “missing in the chaos of the war.”
Many, the organization said, were feared to have been “trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families” during Israel’s offensive.
