From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
TV report: Burns tells PM he still sees chance for deal; Israeli leaders respond that Hamas terms breach all red lines
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The visiting CIA chief told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in talks today that he still sees an opportunity for a deal with Hamas, Channel 12 reports.
The network claims William Burns told his hosts that Israel should not regard the “end of war” as a “full stop,” but rather as a “comma” — to be followed by a process that could still culminate in normalization for Israel with Saudi Arabia.
In talks attended by Netanyahu, Defense Minister Gallant, Mossad chief David Barnea and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar, Israel responded that Hamas’s proposal, received Monday night, “crosses all red lines in every parameter and is unacceptable,” the TV report says.
The Israelis also told Burns that Hamas’s Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar is pleased to see the US withholding weaponry from Israel and that this move further complicates the prospects for a deal. The TV report says Israel’s leaders consider the gaps between the sides on a possible hostage deal to be extremely wide, and therefore believe their focus needs to be on the continuing IDF operation in Rafah.
However, the report says, war cabinet Minister Benny Gantz, and his National Unity party colleague and war cabinet observer Gadi Eisenkot, are demanding that the cabinet take “strategic decisions” for the day after in Gaza before any widening of IDF operations in Rafah or elsewhere in the Strip.
The Times of Israel Community.