Washington, DC – In what remains a rare public criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Joe Biden said the Israeli prime minister was not doing enough to finalize a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
Biden told reporters outside the White House on Monday that the United States was “very close” to presenting a final proposal that would lead to the release of Israeli captives in Gaza.
Asked why he thought the move would succeed when other attempts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza have failed, Biden said: “There is hope.”
The US president then responded with a simple “no” when a reporter asked him whether Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.
Despite the Biden administration’s attempts to distance itself from Netanyahu in recent months, amid the unpopularity of Israel’s war on Gaza, particularly among Democratic supporters, these criticisms are among the most blatant yet from the US president – even if they were brief and seemingly off the cuff.
Biden met with the U.S. team negotiating the deal to release the captives after making his comments Monday, and received an update on the status of the discussions, the White House said.
The renewed US efforts to broker a ceasefire come two days after six Israeli prisoners – including a US citizen – were found dead in Gaza.
The discovery sparked mass protests and strikes across Israel demanding a deal to release the nearly 100 Israelis still held by Palestinian groups in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel continues its brutal blockade and relentless bombing of Gaza, which has killed more than 40,700 Palestinians.
The United States is Israel’s main arms supplier and its most important diplomatic ally. Since the war began in October, Washington has vetoed three UN Security Council proposals that would have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. It abstained from another vote in March demanding an immediate ceasefire.
Biden’s comments Monday about Netanyahu appear to contradict statements by his aides, who have blamed Hamas alone for the failure to reach a deal.
Last month, the United States said it had presented a “transition proposal” to finalize the deal based on a proposal Biden presented in May.
Ceasefire talks
The initial U.S.-backed plan called for a multi-phased effort to end the war, beginning with a six-week pause in fighting that would allow the release of some Israeli captives held in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The second phase of the agreement provides for a definitive end to the fighting and the release of all Israeli prisoners still in captivity. The last part of the agreement provides for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, devastated by the Israeli war.
On August 19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Netanyahu had “accepted” the US proposal for rapprochement and that Hamas should do the same – a claim echoed by other US officials.
Netanyahu, however, insisted that Israel must retain the Philadelphia Corridor, the Palestinian side of the Gaza-Egypt border.
US and Israeli media also reported that the Israeli government was seeking to maintain a presence in central Gaza to restrict the movement of displaced Palestinians to their homes in the territory’s north.
Netanyahu has also repeatedly insisted that he will not accept any deal that would definitively end the war without a “total victory” over Hamas.
Several rounds of indirect negotiations have taken place in Egypt and Qatar in recent months.
But Hamas and other Palestinian groups say any deal must include a permanent end to the war and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency later Monday that Biden’s comments were an acknowledgement that Israel was undermining ceasefire efforts.
In the United States, the killing of an American citizen among six held captive on Saturday has fueled calls for a ceasefire from some Democrats.
Republicans, however, have pointed the finger at Biden and his vice president Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate in the November presidential election.
“We mourn the senseless deaths of Israeli hostages, including a wonderful American citizen, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, murdered by Hamas due to a complete lack of American strength and leadership,” Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wrote in a social media post Sunday.
“Make no mistake: This happened because Comrade Kamala Harris and crooked Joe Biden are poor leaders.”
Harris’s position
Harris had pledged to continue arming Israel despite growing atrocities and accusations of genocide in Gaza.
The US vice president issued a strong statement on Saturday condemning Hamas as “evil” and saying the group “cannot control Gaza.”
Harris did not mention the ceasefire agreement in her speech.
The Democratic Party’s National Uncommitted Movement, which pushed Harris to call for an arms embargo on Israel, expressed disappointment with the vice president’s comments.
“We must not forget the 109 hostages still held in Gaza, each a world apart, and the more than 16,000 Palestinian children killed in a genocide fueled by American weapons – part of the largest Palestinian civilian death toll since Israel’s founding in 1948,” the group’s co-founder, Layla Elabed, said in a statement Sunday.
“In the past 24 hours, 47 Palestinians have been killed by Israel and 6 Israeli hostages have been found dead, but only one of these tragedies makes headlines.”
While Goldberg-Polin’s death made headlines in the United States, he is not the first American citizen to be killed in the region this year.
Two American teenagers have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank this year, their families said.
Israel also killed two U.S. citizens in 2022: elderly Palestinian-American Omar Assad and Tel Aviv Tribune journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
On Monday, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with the families of U.S. citizens detained in Gaza.
“Sullivan discussed the ongoing diplomatic pressure at the highest levels of the U.S. government to reach an agreement that secures the release of the remaining hostages,” the White House said in a statement after the meeting.
“He underscored the deep commitment of President Biden and his administration to bringing loved ones home as quickly as possible.”