Israel-Hamas war: Netanyahu views Biden's plan as incomplete

An advisor from Iran's Revolutionary Guard was reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike on Aleppo, Syria, according to Iranian state-affiliated media.

The Tasnim news agency said that IRCG officer Saeed Abyar was "martyred" in the strike, which took place overnight.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported a strike in Aleppo.

"The death toll of the Israeli strike on a factory in Hayyan in western Aleppo province has risen to 16 pro-Iran group members, including Syrian and foreign fighters," the organization said.

Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is "working in countless ways" to bring back hostages held by Hamas in Gaza while also prioritizing the destruction of the Palestinian militant group.

"This is not something that I am adding now. This is not something that I am adding because I am under pressure within the coalition. It is something we agreed on unanimously in the war cabinet," Netanyahu said in a video statement.

The Israeli prime minister has come under pressure recently after US President Joe Biden presented a three-phase cease-fire plan. 

Opposition leader Yair Lapid has called on Netanyahu to accept the deal. 

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right coalition partner, said Netanyahu had invited him to read the proposal, but the prime minister's office failed to provide him with the document. He stressed that any plan must entail destroying Hamas.

A session of UN climate negotiations in Bonn, a city in western Germany, was suspended due to a pro-Palestinian protest action.

The Bonn Climate Change conference began on Monday. It is designed to prepare decisions to be discussed at the COP29 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan in November.

Activists from the Climate Action Network raised a Palestinian flag at the conference and unfurled a banner reading: "No business as usual during a genocide."

They were then seen being escorted out by security.

Police said they planned no further investigations following the incident.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu viewed the cease-fire proposal presented by US President Joe Biden is "partial."

"The outline that President Biden presented is partial," government spokesman David Mencer quoted Netanyahu as saying.

"The war will be stopped for the purpose of returning the hostages," he added, noting that this will be followed by discussions on how to achieve the war's stated goal of eliminating Hamas.

"The claims that we have agreed to a cease-fire without our conditions being met are incorrect," Netanyahu was quoted as saying in a separate statement issued by his office.

The remarks came amid apparent friction with Netanyahu's coalition partner Ben Gvir, who, according to Israeli media, accused the prime minister of "whitewashing" the cease-fire plan. 

He also accused Netanyahu's office of failing to provide him with the document. 

"If you sign a reckless deal that will bring an end to the war without the collapse of Hamas, Otzma Yehudit will dissolve the government," he said, referring to his party.

The UN satellite analysis agency, UNOSAT, said that 55% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed, damaged or possibly damaged since the start of the war.

UNOSAT said its preliminary satellite analysis showed more than 137,000 buildings affected. 

Citing satellite imagery analysis, the agency reported that 36,591 structures were destroyed, 16,513 were severely damaged, 47,368 were moderately damaged and 36,825 were possibly damaged.

The UNOSAT estimates 135,142 housing units were damaged. 

The figures are based on an analysis comparing a satellite image taken on May 3 to images taken in May, September, October and November last year, the agency said. 

At least 36,479 Palestinians have been killed and 82,777 wounded in the war in Gaza since October 7, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said on Monday. 

According to the ministry, 40 Palestinians were killed and 150 wounded in the past 24 hours. 

Earlier on Monday, Gaza authorities said four people, including three children, were killed in a strike on a home in the built-up Bureij refugee camp late Sunday. A second strike early Monday reportedly killed seven people in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Both camps are located in central Gaza.

The Gaza Health Ministry figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. However, its data has held up to UN verification in past conflicts and is considered largely reliable by UN agencies. 

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has reiterated a "clear position" rejecting Israel's control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. 

"The Rafah crossing is the only connection between Palestinians and the outside world," Shoukry said, noting that other crossings were closed to the Palestinians. 

"The movement of Palestinians, their needs for health treatment or education, has traditionally been through Egypt," he said, adding: "It is difficult for the Rafah crossing to continue operating without a Palestinian administration."

Since the start of the war, Egypt has largely rejected calls to open the Rafah border crossing for people to flee Gaza, saying it could risk mass displacement of Palestinians. Rafah, however, has been the main hub of humanitarian aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip.

Now Egypt refuses to coordinate with Israel humanitarian deliveries through Rafah but has agreed to send some aid via the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Last week, Israel claimed control of the entire border corridor, alleging that numerous smuggling tunnels belonging to Hamas ran beneath it. Egyptian media had quoted unnamed Egyptian officials as saying that the move could violate a 1979 peace treaty. 

On Monday, Shoukry said the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty remained "a solid base for security and stability in the region and everyone must consider and take measures responsibly to preserve this important treaty."

Under the treaty, Egypt and Israel have cooperated closely on security issues and jointly upheld a blockade of Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

A group of UN human rights experts and special rapporteurs called on "all countries" to recognize Palestinian statehood and "use all political and diplomatic resources at their disposal to bring about an immediate cease-fire in Gaza." 

Spain, Norway and Ireland last week joined the majority of UN member states in recognizing Palestinian statehood. 

"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 statement published by the UN human rights office (OHCHR). 

"This is a pre-condition for lasting peace in Palestine and the entire Middle East — beginning with the immediate declaration of a cease-fire in Gaza and no further military incursions into Rafah." 

There was no immediate Israeli response to the statement, although Israeli officials reacted angrily to the recognition by three European countries last week. Israel has previously accused the OHCHR of bias. 

Israel's military said the body of a presumed hostage was found in a village bordering Gaza that was attacked by militants during the Hamas-led terror attacks on October 7. 

Dolev Yehud, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was thought to be held hostage in Gaza.

The 35-year-old was a volunteer medic whose wife gave birth to their fourth child nine days after the October 7 attacks, according to the Israeli military. 

A total of around 250 people were taken hostage in the attacks. Yehud's 28-year-old sister, Arbel, is believed to be one of them, according to the family. 

Israel estimates some 120 of the hostages are still in Gaza. Dozens were freed in a cease-fire deal in November and 39 have been declared dead in absentia by Israel, based on witness testimony, forensics and intelligence analysis.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Cairo was continuing to work with mediators US and Qatar to "motivate" Israel and Hamas to accept a cease-fire offer presented by US President Joe Biden. 

"The initial statements from Hamas is that [the group] received the plan in a positive way. We are now waiting for the response from Israel," Shoukry said in a press conference with his Spanish counterpart. 

Shoukry's remarks come a day after White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington had "every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal... that Israel would say yes."

On Friday, Biden presented what he called an Israeli three-phase plan that would halt the fighting, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of Gaza — without Hamas in power. 

The US, Qatar and Egypt later said they called "on both Hamas and Israel to finalize the agreement embodying the principles outlined by President Joe Biden."

The stated goal of Israel's retaliatory invasion of Gaza is to "destroy Hamas" after the deadly Hamas-led terror attacks on October 7 killed some 1,200 people. Over 36,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel started its military operation there, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry.

Israel, the US, the EU and several other countries classify Hamas as a terrorist organization. 

fb/sms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)