Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he is interested in a "partial deal" with Hamas that will free "some of the hostages" held in Gaza and allow Israel to continue fighting in the enclave.

Why it matters: Netanyahu's remarks walk back an Israeli proposal for a three-phase deal that would lead to the release of all remaining 120 hostages and to "sustainable calm" in Gaza.

• More than 37,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials.
• Netanyahu's comments contradicted statements by Biden administration officials who in recent days said Netanyahu and his aides had reiterated their support for the proposal.
• In recent weeks, Netanyahu's radical right-wing coalition partners, ultranationalist ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, threatened to leave the coalition and topple the government if the proposal turns into an agreement.

Flashback: The proposal was approved by the Israeli war cabinet in late May and was presented publicly by President Biden in a speech on May 31.

• The Biden administration mobilized broad international support for the proposal and managed to get the UN Security Council to pass a resolution endorsing it.
• Hamas officially responded to the proposal nearly two weeks after Biden's speech. The group asked for changes in the proposal and raised new demands that went beyond its own previous positions, * U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on June 12.
• Blinken said at the time that while Israel accepted the proposal, Hamas didn't

Driving the news: Netanyahu remarks were part of an interview with Israel's Channel 14, a pro-Netanyahu television channel.

• When Netanyahu was asked if he agreed to end the war as part of a hostage deal he said he didn't. "I will not stop the war and leave Hamas standing in Gaza," he said.
• "I am ready to do a partial deal, it is no secret, that will bring back some of the people. But we are committed to continue the war after the pause in order to achieve the goal of destroying Hamas. I will not give up on this," he added.

Between the lines: Netanyahu claimed his position "was no secret" but it was the first time that he spoke publicly about a "partial deal" or suggested he hadn't intended to implement all three phases in the Israeli proposal.

What they're saying: The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, an NGO that represents most of the hostages' families and is pushing for their release, attacked Netanyahu for his remarks.

• "We strongly condemn the Prime Minister's statement in which he walked back from the Israeli proposal. This means he is abandoning 120 hostages and harms the moral duty of the state of Israel to its citizens," they said.

The big picture: The Israeli Prime Minister's remarks are likely to increase tensions between the Israeli government and the White House, which have grown in recent days over Netanyahu's claims that the Biden administration is withholding weapons from Israel.

• Netanyahu said on Sunday at the start of a cabinet meeting that there was a dramatic decrease in the munitions coming to Israel from the U.S. beginning four months ago.
• "For long weeks, we turned to our American friends and requested that the shipments be expedited. We did this time and again. We did so at the highest levels, and at all levels, and we did so behind closed doors. We received all sorts of explanations, but the basic situation did not change. Certain items arrived sporadically but the munitions at large remained behind," he said.
• Netanyahu claimed that only after there was no change in the shipments, he decided to go public in order to "open the bottleneck".

The military leader of Hamas has said he believes he has gained the upper hand over Israel and that the spiralling civilian death toll in Gaza would work in the militant group’s favor, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal, citing leaked messages the newspaper said it had seen.

“We have the Israelis right where we want them,” Yahya Sinwar told other Hamas leaders recently, according to one of the messages, the WSJ reported Monday. In another, Sinwar is said to have described civilian deaths as “necessary sacrifices” while citing past independence-related conflicts in countries like Algeria.

The messages reported by the WSJ offer a rare glimpse into the mind of the man steering Hamas’ thinking on the war and suggest an uncompromising determination to continue fighting, regardless of the human cost.

Sinwar’s alleged comments emerged as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on another tour through the Middle East to push all sides to agree to the latest proposal. Speaking from Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Blinken made it clear that the US believes Sinwar is the ultimate decision-maker.

“I think there are there those who have influenced, but influence is one thing, actually getting a decision made is the is another thing. I don’t think anyone other than the Hamas leadership in Gaza actually are the ones who can make decisions,” Blinken said, adding that “that is what we are waiting on.”

Blinken said that Hamas’ answer to the proposal will reveal the group’s priorities.

“We await the answer from Hamas in and that will speak volumes about what they want, what they’re looking for, who they’re looking after,” Blinken said. “Are they looking after one guy who may be for now safe … I don’t know, 10 stories underground somewhere in Gaza, while the people that he purports to represent continue to suffer in a crossfire of his own making? Or will he do what’s necessary to actually move this to a better place, to help end the suffering of people to help bring real security to Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

In early messages to ceasefire negotiators, Sinwar seemed “surprised” by the brutality of the October 7 attack on Israel.

“Things went out of control,” Sinwar said in one of his messages, according to the WSJ, adding he was “referring to gangs taking civilian women and children as hostages.”

“People got caught up in this, and that should not have happened,” Sinwar said, according to the WSJ.

Speaking to ABC News on Sunday morning, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the US had "every expectation" that Israel would "say yes" to the proposed ceasefire deal if Hamas accepts.

"We're waiting for an official response from Hamas," he said, adding that the US hopes that both sides agree to start the first phase of the plan "as soon as possible".

During that initial six-week pause in the fighting, Mr Kirby said the "two sides would sit down and try to negotiate what phase two could look like, and when that could begin".

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/26702850

Slava Ukraini

The US will begin air dropping food aid to the people of Gaza, President Joe Biden announced on Friday, as the humanitarian crisis deepens and Israel continues to resist opening additional land crossings to allow more assistance into the war-torn strip.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Biden said the US would be "pulling out every stop" to get additional aid into Gaza, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.

"Aid flowing to Gaza is nowhere nearly enough," the US President said, noting "hundreds of trucks" should be entering the enclave.

Biden said the US is "going to insist that Israel facilitate more trucks and more routes to get more and more people the help they need, no excuses".

He also noted the efforts to broker a deal to free the hostages and secure an "immediate ceasefire" that would allow additional aid in.