Biden had anticipated that the plan would be unacceptable to some members of the Israeli government, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
“And, of course, we’ve seen some members of the Israeli government already come out and oppose it,” Miller said. But he said the proposal “served Israel’s long-term security interests.” Obviously, it is also in the long-term interests of the Palestinian people.”
Miller said that since Biden announced the plan on Friday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken had spoken with the foreign ministers of Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. He also spoke with Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s war cabinet, and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
“We are completely confident” that Israel supports the ceasefire plan, Miller said, adding that it was presented last week to Hamas, which has not yet formally responded.
Hamas has said it “views positively” the proposal as Biden described it on Friday. He has not said whether he would accept the deal. On Sunday, Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told an Egyptian media outlet that “the ball” was now “in the Israeli court.”
Netanyahu has insisted that the ceasefire proposal would allow Israel to continue fighting Hamas until all of its war objectives are achieved, including destroying the military and governance capabilities of the group, which led the deadly Oct. 7 attacks in southern Israel.
Two Israeli officials confirmed that the offer shared by Biden generally aligned with the most recent ceasefire proposal that Israel had put forward in talks brokered by Qatar and Egypt.
Just as global attention has been focused on the rising death toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, attention in Israel is focused on the security and release of the hostages, many of them civilians, captured on October 7 and taken to Gaza. .