Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by President Joe Biden’s statement that a ceasefire in Gaza could be reached by next Monday, ABC News reported Tuesday, quoting Israeli sources.
“My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire,” President Biden told reporters on Monday while leaving the set of NBC’s Late Night show.
The U.S. president also claimed that Israel would not hit Hamas targets in Gaza, particularly the last terrorist stronghold of Rafah, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan set to start on March 10. “Ramadan’s coming up and there has been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden claimed while holding an ice cream cone.
ABC News reported the Israeli response:
A senior Israeli political source told ABC News on Tuesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “surprised” by U.S. President Joe Biden’s remarks that he was hopeful a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas could be in place “by next Monday.”
The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday also reported of “skepticism” surrounding President Biden’s sweeping claims.
“Israeli officials said the remarks, coupled with Biden’s prediction that a cease-fire could be reached by Monday, took them by surprise. The president’s remarks were also met with skepticism from some people involved in the negotiations, which are mediated by Qatar and Egypt,” WSJ disclosed.
The gaping contrast between Biden’s claims and the Israeli position once again raises concerns about the president’s diminishing cognitive abilities.
After breaching the previous ceasefire in late December, Hamas is again making lofty demands for the partial release of hostages — telling Israel to pull the troops out of Gaza and free hundreds of Palestinian terrorists, including convicted murderers.
The hostage negotiations with Hamas terrorists were far from ‘close’ as claimed by Biden, Times of Israel reported:
Several Hebrew media reports on Monday indicated mounting pessimism among senior Israeli officials regarding the prospects for a hostage deal, as Hamas appeared to signal it would not accept the latest proposal.Channels 12, 13 and Kan news all quoted senior officials as saying that Israel had been told that the framework worked out in Paris by Israel, American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators on Friday “doesn’t correspond with Hamas demands.” Channel 12 said Hamas leaders abroad had indicated there were “red lines” the proposal crossed that they would not accept.
While the Biden administration continues to press Israel to suspend the planned military operation against Hamas in Rafah, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was determined to get Hamas’ Gaza terror chief Yahya Sinwar, believed to be hiding behind Israeli hostages in Rafah. “[W]e will get to him dead or alive,” the IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari declared Tuesday, referring to the mastermind of the October 7 massacre.
The Israeli news website Arutz Sheva reports:
IDF Spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari participated today (Tuesday) in the World Zionist Organization’s emergency conference on the challenges facing the Jewish people at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.Hagari was asked about the whereabouts of Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza and one of the masterminds of the massacre of October 7. Sinwar has been in hiding since Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the massacre.”I don’t think the question is where the target is, we will get to him dead or alive. However long it takes we will do it. We are gathering our intelligence, we are doing many things, taking risks and it will happen.” Hagari responded.
The Israeli military was conducting mopping-up operations in southern Gaza as it prepares for an offensive on Rafah, the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported Tuesday:
In an operation in the western part of Khan Yunis, the IDF’s Maglan and Egoz unit, formed by commandos, has been engaged in fierce combat, targeting terrorist infrastructure and Hamas combat zones.According to a statement from the IDF spokesperson, the unit has successfully eliminated numerous terrorists daily, employing various tactics including close-range encounters, sniper ambushes, and direct air and ground fire.A recent raid by the Maglan fighters on a Hamas combat compound yielded significant results, according to the spokesperson.During the operation, the unit encountered four armed terrorists. In the ensuing engagement, three of the terrorists were neutralized, while the fourth surrendered to security forces for further investigation.
The IDF was drawing out a battle and evacuation plan aimed at further minimizing Palestinian casualties, recent Israel media reports suggest.
Netanyahu on Sunday vowed that the IDF was set to capture Rafah — with or without a hostage deal. “If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen,” he said in a CBS interview.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued relentless rocket fire at Israeli military sites and civilian neighborhoods in the north. The Iran-backed terrorist group has intensified cross-border attacks from Lebanon as IDF nears its mission to flush Hamas from Gaza.
The UK daily Telegraph reported:
Hezbollah said it had launched a volley of rockets at an Israeli aerial surveillance base in response to deadly Israeli attacks on east Lebanon.Hezbollah said it targeted the “Meron air control base… with a large salvo of rockets from several launchers” on Tuesday, in response to the Baalbek strikes.Avichay Adraee, an Israeli military spokesman, said the rockets caused no casualties or damage to the base, while Israeli fighter jets raided and destroyed “a military site” and “military infrastructure” belonging to Hezbollah in retaliation.It comes after the IDF carried out some of its deepest strikes in Lebanon on Monday in the first attacks on Hezbollah targets outside of the country’s south since the start of the war in Gaza.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY