Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved sending a negotiating team to participate in talks with aims of reaching a hostage release and ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to an Israeli official quoted by The Times of Israel.
Netanyahu spoke on the phone with United States President Joe Biden regarding the negotiations, and vowed Israel will end the war ‘only after meeting all goals,’ his office stated.
In the meeting with his negotiating team ahead of the decision, Netanyahu “stressed again that the war will end only after achieving all of its goals, and not one moment earlier.”
Last night, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office announced that Israel had received Hamas’ latest response to Israel’s proposal, and would study it today. Hamas insists it will only agree to a deal that guarantees a permanent end to the fighting in Gaza.
On the preceding day, Hamas said it had sent new “ideas” to Qatari mediators aimed at ending the nearly nine-month Gaza war with Israel.