President Joe Biden speaks at the White House on May 31. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

US President Joe Biden has laid out a three-phase proposal to end the conflict in Gaza, saying, “It’s time for this war to end.”

Biden unveiled the plan Friday in a speech from the White House, saying the proposal was submitted by Israel. The US leader said Hamas has been degraded to a point where it can no longer carry out the type of attack that launched the current eight-month conflict.

Hamas has expressed openness to the proposal, which was also hailed by some world leaders. But Israel has since made statements that seem to contradict Biden’s comments, casting some doubt on the degree of support it has for the proposal as laid out by the president.

Here’s what to know:

The three phases: Biden said the first phase would last six weeks and include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” and “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”

He said second phase would allow for the “exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers.”

“And as long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, the temporary ceasefire would become, in the words of the Israeli proposals, ‘the cessation of hostilities permanently,’” Biden added.

In the third phase, the president said, a “major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed will be returned to their families.”

Hamas and Israel respond: The militant group said it “views positively” what was outlined, and said it would respond “constructively” to any ceasefire and hostage plan.

Soon after Biden detailed the proposal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted in a statement that the country would not end the war until Hamas is defeated. The Prime Minister’s Office added that their proposal allows Israel to “maintain these principles.”

On Saturday, the Israeli prime minister reiterated this stance, saying Israel’s goals for the war “have not changed.”

The statements, which seem to contradict Biden, have left some doubt as to whether Israel supports the proposal as outlined by the US president — who had said Israel itself submitted the plan.

International reaction:

• French President Emmanuel Macron voiced support for the plan. He wrote the message, “The war in Gaza must end,” three times in Arabic, English and Hebrew on the social media platform X. “We support the US proposal for a durable peace … the release of the hostages, a permanent ceasefire to work towards peace and progress on the two-state solution,” Macron wrote.
• United Kingdom Foreign Secretary David Cameron also said he supports the proposal, saying, “Let’s seize this moment,” in a post on X. “Hamas must accept this deal so we can see a stop in the fighting, the hostages released and returned to their families and a flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” Cameron said.

Read more about the peace proposal here.

This post has been updated with the latest reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other world leaders.

Source link: https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-06-01-24/index.html