An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirms that Israel has accepted a framework deal advanced by US President Joe Biden for winding down operations in Gaza, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work, Reuters reports.

In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal was “a deal we agreed to […] it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them”.

“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organisation” have not changed.

The first phase of the three-phase plan entails a truce and the return of some hostages held by Hamas, after which the sides would negotiate on an open-ended cessation of hostilities for a second phase in which remaining live captives would go free, Biden said.

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