Israel’s Netanyahu says no agreement yet on cease-fire proposal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee Monday that any “claims that we have agreed to a cease-fire without our conditions being met are incorrect.” The remark came as a Hamas official, Suhail Hindi, told The Washington Post that the plan presented publicly by President Biden last week was “still under discussion” by the group.

The stalemate continues as international pressure grows on both parties. Egypt’s foreign minister urged Israel and Hamas on Monday to accept the cease-fire plan, telling reporters: “Hamas’s initial statements indicate that it received the deal proposal positively, and we are waiting for the Israeli response,” Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said.

The proposal, which the White House has called an Israeli proposal, has divided public opinion in Israel, where more than 100,000 people filled the streets of Tel Aviv this past weekend in support of the deal, demanding that the Israeli government accept it to hasten the release of hostages held in Gaza.

Netanyahu said in a separate statement Monday that he was “working in countless ways to return our hostages,” adding, “I think about them constantly, about their families and about their suffering.” But he underscored that the “elimination of Hamas,” remained a primary focus.

The Israeli military on Monday confirmed that four more hostages were killed several months ago in Hamas custody. The four were “killed while together in the area of Khan Younis during our operation there against Hamas,” Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a Monday briefing. The IDF notified the families Monday.

The news increases the pressure on Netanyahu to seek a deal that will bring the remaining hostages back home.

“Chaim (Peri, 80), Yoram (Metzger, 80), Amiram (Cooper, 84), and Nadav (Popplewell, 51) were kidnapped alive, some of them were with other hostages who returned in the previous deal — and they should have returned alive to their country and their families!” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

The cease-fire proposal has already divided his fragile war cabinet after far-right members of the coalition threatened to quit and bring down the government if the deal is accepted.

Ultranationalist minister Bezalel Smotrich called the proposal “dangerous” on Monday and said it would “humiliate the State of Israel.” He reiterated that he and others would stand down and “work to replace the failed leadership with a new one,” should it be accepted.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, however, has said that he would provide backing to Netanyahu’s government to keep it from collapsing if it accepts the deal.

“The Israeli government must agree to the Netanyahu proposal and send a delegation to Cairo today to finalize the details,” he said. “I am repeating my offer to give Netanyahu a political safety net to carry out the deal.”

Netanyahu has also accused the United States of presenting only a “partial” view of the cease-fire plan.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday there were no “gaps,” in the proposal. “We’re confident that [Biden’s speech] accurately reflects that proposal — a proposal that we worked with the Israelis on, so I know of no gaps to speak of,” he added.

The White House has described the proposal as including a six-week halt in fighting, during which hostages taken from Israel during Hamas’s blitz on Oct. 7 would be released in phases in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. There would also be a significant increase in aid shipments allowed into the Gaza Strip, where aid organizations have warned that a humanitarian crisis is underway.

The main point of contention for this and past proposals, however, remains how and when the war will officially end. Israel insists on the complete destruction of Hamas. Hamas says it wants a permanent cease-fire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a Netanyahu rival within his own party, spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday night and said Israel envisions creating an alternative to Hamas to run Gaza. “Putting a governmental alternative to Hamas will help to bring them home,” Gallant said in a statement issued by the Defense Ministry.

He told Blinken the security establishment is promoting measures to dismantle Hamas’s role as the governing and military authority in Gaza and enable the establishment of an alternative power that would overthrow Hamas rule and exert pressure to return hostages.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which aids Palestinian refugees, said Monday that more than 1 million Palestinians have fled from Rafah since Israeli ground operations started last month and that most are sheltering in the ruins of the city of Khan Younis. “Conditions are unspeakable,” the agency said on X. The United Nations also said Monday that more than half of the total buildings in Gaza — about 137,297 structures — had been destroyed or damaged by the war so far.

Here’s what to know

- A group of U.N. experts are calling on more nations to formally recognize the state of Palestine. “This recognition is an important acknowledgment of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggles and suffering toward freedom and independence,” the experts said in a joint statement Monday. Among the signatories is Francesca Albanese, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in occupied Palestinian territories. The letter follows the recognition from Spain, Ireland and Norway in recent weeks.

- The Israeli military and fire and rescue services are fighting fires started in northern Israel by rocket fire from Lebanon. The fires have spread amid a heat wave in the region. The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that “no human life is at risk” as a result of the blaze. Some Israeli politicians, including opposition leader Yair Lapid, said the fires were evidence that the current government was mismanaging national affairs.

- The Maldives will impose a ban on Israeli passport holders entering the country, the president’s office announced following a recommendation from the cabinet. The president will appoint a special envoy “to assess Palestinian needs” and set up a fundraising campaign to “assist our brothers and sisters in Palestine” with the help of UNRWA.

- The IDF said it identified the body of Dolev Yehud, 35, a paramedic who left his house on Oct. 7 “in an attempt to save lives.” His body was found in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and his family was notified after it was identified by medical officials. Hagari confirmed his death along with the four hostages he announced had been killed several months ago in the Khan Younis area. The prime minister’s office said the number of hostages still being held in Gaza has been updated to 124, of which at least 39 have been declared dead. These figures include four Israelis held for a decade: two of them soldiers confirmed dead and the two other civilians whose fates are unknown.

- At least 20 people were killed in three overnight strikes that hit central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, Gaza’s civil defense spokesman said. The IDF said Monday it is continuing operations in Rafah and the central Gaza Strip.

- At least 36,479 people have been killed and 82,777 injured in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 293 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations in Gaza.

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Heba Farouk Mahfouz, Hazem Balousha, Shira Rubin, Lior Soroka and Alon Rom contributed to this report.