Netanyahu trying to win over his Likud Party members who oppose cease-fire in Gaza

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday started efforts to convince ministers and lawmakers from his Likud Party who oppose a cease-fire proposal announced by US President Joe Biden on Friday.

So far, Netanyahu has not clearly announced approving the cease-fire proposal.

According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Netanyahu and his office started talks with Knesset (Israel's parliament) members from his Likud Party who are believed to have rejected a deal with Hamas.

It added that the move by Netanyahu comes in light of the threats by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to topple the government in case he agrees to the proposal announced by Biden.

KAN noted that Netanyahu's talks with his party members indicate concerns about the ruling coalition with Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

As of Tuesday, Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of the United Torah Judaism Party, along with some ministers from the Likud Party, voiced support for the cease-fire proposal.

Goldknopf said he backs any proposal that leads to the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Yair Lapid, the opposition leader, also urged Netanyahu to accept the Biden announced cease-fire proposal, adding that he would give Netanyahu a political safety net to reach the deal.

The proposal, as laid out by Biden last Friday, envisions a three-phase agreement that would culminate with a multi-year process to rebuild the badly damaged coastal enclave and the return of all hostages, living and dead, held in Gaza.

The first phase would start with a six-week cease-fire, during which a first round of hostages held in Gaza would be released, including women, the elderly, and the injured, in exchange for the release of what Biden said would be "hundreds" of Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces would also withdraw from what a senior Biden administration official called "densely populated areas."

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

More than 36,500 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and nearly 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly eight months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara