The "intensive" phase of Israel's offensive in Gaza will end soon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday — but he signaled he would accept only a "partial" cease-fire deal that would not end the war and that this new phase would allow a shift in focus to the simmering conflict on the country's northern border with Lebanon.
Netanyahu's comments appeared to back further away from a U.S.-supported truce deal with Hamas, setting the stage for his latest clash with the Biden administration and the families of hostages still held in Gaza. They also fueled new international concern about escalation with the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah that could ignite a broader regional conflict.
Speaking Sunday with Israel’s Channel 14 in what appeared to be his first major interview with an Israeli media outlet since Oct. 7, Netanyahu said the current phase of fighting was set to wind down.
"The intensive phase of the war against Hamas is about to end. It doesn't mean that the war is about to end, but its intensive phase is about to end in Rafah," he said, referring to the city once deemed a safe zone in the south of the Palestinian enclave.
"We will continue afterward to mow the lawn. We will not give up on that," Netanyahu said, speaking in Hebrew.
After that, "we will have the option to move part of the force to the north. We will do that," he said.
He also said he was "ready to make a partial deal" that would secure the release of "some of the hostages," but he reiterated that Israel would continue its offensive in Gaza even if there were a cease-fire "to achieve the goal of eliminating" Hamas.
Hamas seized upon Netanyahu's comments, saying his bid for a partial deal was a "clear rejection" of the proposal outlined by President Joe Biden for a comprehensive three-phase agreement to release the hostages and end the fighting in Gaza.
Netanyahu's office responded late Sunday that it was Hamas "which opposes a deal, not Israel."
"Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear that we will not leave Gaza until we return all 120 of our hostages, living and deceased," it said.
Washington has also maintained that Hamas was holding up a deal.
But the families of the remaining hostages hit out at Netanyahu, suggesting he had backed away from the U.S. proposal.
A group representing them condemned his statement, which it said "abandons 120 hostages and violates the state's moral obligation to its citizens."
Netanyahu has continued to flout pressure from at home and abroad to strike a cease-fire deal with Hamas, as well as to reduce tensions at Israel's northern border with Lebanon to avoid an all-out war with Hezbollah.
His comments heightened international alarm, with the European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, warning that the “risk of a full-blown conflict involving Hezbollah is real.”
The top U.S. military officer also warned Sunday that any Israeli military offensive into Lebanon would risk inviting an Iranian response that could endanger U.S. troops in the region.
Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that while Tehran already supports Hamas militants in Gaza, it would be likely to give greater support to the Lebanon-based group, “particularly if they felt that Hezbollah was being significantly threatened.”
Israel and the U.S. continued to clash over weapons shipments.
Speaking Sunday during a visit to Washington, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant maintained that Israeli officials were “committed to ensuring a strong U.S.-Israel alliance.”
Yet Netanyahu on Sunday repeated accusations that Washington was withholding weapons, telling his Cabinet there had been a “dramatic drop” in deliveries “about four months ago.” The Biden administration has rejected his claims.
“We have made our position clear on this repeatedly, and we are not going to keep responding to the prime minister’s political statements," a White House official told NBC News.
But the official said Washington was looking forward to "constructive consultations" with Gallant in Washington this week.
Gallant told U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein at a meeting Monday that "the transition to 'Phase C' in the war in Gaza will impact developments on all fronts, and that Israel is preparing for every scenario both militarily and diplomatically," Gallant's office said, in apparent reference to the planned scaling back of Gaza operations.
The humanitarian group Save the Children warned Monday of an increasingly dire situation for young Palestinians, revealing an estimate that up to 21,000 children in Gaza had gone "missing in the chaos of the war."
Many, the organization said, were feared to have been "trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families" during Israel's offensive.
