TEL AVIV, June 3. /TASS/. Israel may agree to a 42-day pause in combat in the Gaza Strip in order to release hostages held in the enclave and then continue with the operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"Israel can stop the fighting for 42 days to return the captives. But we cannot stop the war. The Iranians and all our enemies are watching us, wanting to see if we will surrender," he said at a closed-door meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as quoted by Israel Hayom.

According to The Times of Israel, at the meeting, Netanyahu told legislators that US President Joe Biden’s version of the peace deal was missing key elements of Israel’s proposal. He also reportedly said that there were "gaps" between the Israeli version and Biden’s recounting of it. "The war will stop in order to bring hostages back, and afterward we will hold discussions. There are other details that the US president did not present to the public," Netanyahu is quoted as saying.

On May 31, Biden presented a three-stage settlement plan for the Gaza Strip which, according to him, Israel had proposed.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria, followed by a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.