Netanyahu aide: Biden’s Gaza plan ‘not a good deal’ but Israel accepts it

The first phase entails a truce and the return of some hostages held by Hamas, after which the sides would negotiate on an open-ended cessation of hostilities for a second phase in which remaining live captives would go free, Biden said.

The primary sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only temporary pauses to fighting until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas, which shows no sign of stepping aside, says it will free hostages only under a path to a permanent end to the war.

In his speech, Biden said his latest proposal “creates a better ‘day after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power”. He did not elaborate on how this would be achieved, and acknowledged that “there are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two”.

Falk reiterated Netanyahu’s position that “there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met”.

Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem to spare Hamas. A centrist partner, ex-general Benny Gantz, wants the deal considered.

Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative, though a senior official from the group, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Sunday that “Hamas is too big to be bypassed or sidelined by Netanyahu or Biden”.

A day earlier another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera news outlet: “Biden’s speech included positive ideas, but we want this to materialise within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands.”

Israeli officials have rejected that as an effective return to the situation in place before October 7, when Hamas, committed to Israel’s destruction, ruled Gaza. Its fighters precipitated the war by storming across the border fence into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

In the ensuing Israeli assault that has laid waste to much of the impoverished and besieged coastal enclave, more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza medical officials say. Israel says 290 of its troops have died in the fighting.

The Maldives, a tiny Islamic republic of more than 1,000 strategically located coral islets, is known for its secluded sandy white beaches, shallow turquoise lagoons and Robinson Crusoe-style getaways.

President Mohamed Muizzu has “resolved to impose a ban on Israeli passports”, a spokesman for his office said in a statement, without giving details of when the new law would take effect.

Muizzu also announced a national fundraising campaign called “Maldivians in Solidarity with Palestine”.

The Maldives had lifted a previous ban on Israeli tourists in the early 1990s and moved to restore relations in 2010.

However, normalisation attempts were scuttled following the toppling of president Mohamed Nasheed in February 2012.

Opposition parties and government allies in the Maldives have been putting pressure on Muizzu to ban Israelis, as a sign of protest against the Gaza war.

Official data showed the number of Israelis visiting the Maldives dropped to 528 in the first four months of this year, down 88 per cent compared with the corresponding period last year.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse