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France 24
France 24
World
FRANCE 24

Biden sees Hamas as ‘only obstacle’ to Gaza ceasefire deal

Palestinian men walk past damaged buildings after an overnight Israeli strike in al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on June 3, 2024. © Eyad Baba, AFP

US President Joe Biden told Qatar's emir Monday that Hamas was the only obstacle to a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel, and urged him to press the militant group to accept it, the White House said. An Israeli government spokesperson had earlier quoted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as saying that the outline Biden presented was only "partial", and that fighting would only stop temporarily "for the purpose of returning the hostages". Read our liveblog to see how all the day's events unfolded. 

This liveblog is now closed. For all the latest, please click here.

Summary:

  • US President Joe Biden told Qatar's emir Monday that Hamas was the only obstacle to a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel, and urged him to press the militant group to accept it, the White House said.

  • Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu views a plan for a hostage release deal in Gaza presented by US President Joe Biden as a "partial" outline, a government spokesman said Monday. 

  • The Israeli army on Monday announced the deaths of four hostages in the Gaza Strip.

  • Some 55 percent of all structures in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or possibly damaged since war erupted eight months ago, according to a preliminary satellite analysis by the UN.

  • Lebanon's Hezbollah armed group said on Monday it had launched a squadron of drones towards the headquarters of the Israel military's Galilee formation.

  • Forced displacement has pushed more than a million people away from the Gazan city of Rafah, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Monday.

  • At least 36,479 Palestinians have been killed and 82,777 wounded in Israel’s war in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Some 1,170 people were killed in the Hamas-led October 7 attacks and 250 people were taken hostage, with about 120 remaining in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Many have been declared dead by Israeli authorities.

Yesterday's key developments:

  • Israel's military reported more air strikes and ground combat on Sunday in central Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city, as well as the Zeitun and Sabra areas in Gaza City in the north.
  • White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday that if Hamas agrees to the deal to end the Gaza war, the US expects Israel to also accept the plan.
  • Following a meeting with US and Israeli delegations in Cairo on Sunday, Egypt stuck with its position that Israel must withdraw from the Rafah crossing for it to operate again, Egyptian media reported. No aid has entered Gaza from Egypt since Israel seized control of the Palestinian side of the crossing on May 7. 
About casualty figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry:

Gaza’s health ministry collects data from the enclave’s hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. For more on the health ministry’s casualty figures, click here.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters) 

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