President Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday to discuss a possible ceasefire agreement to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, while warning of a new Israeli attack on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. repeated. said the official.
The call was aimed at paving the way for Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s latest trip to the Middle East, which he left Washington for hours earlier on Sunday, aimed at winding down the war in Gaza. Mr. Blinken will travel to Saudi Arabia to meet with officials from Egypt and Qatar, which have been acting as intermediaries with Hamas in the stalled ceasefire and hostage negotiations.
The State Department announced Sunday that Blinken will attend a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh on the plane, and will also make stops in Jordan and Israel. He is the Biden administration’s target to broker a ceasefire in the war, expand humanitarian aid and win the release of more than 100 hostages believed to still be in Gaza since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack. It plays an important role in the initiative.
“Continuing to push for this temporary ceasefire will be a top priority for Secretary Blinken,” White House National Security Press Secretary John F. Kirby said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We hope that it will last about six weeks. This will allow the escape of all the hostages and of course also facilitate the access of relief supplies to the Gaza Strip, especially to the northern locations.”
He has also led discussions about what happens after the war ends. During his visit to Saudi Arabia, Mr. Blinken met with a group of Arab and European officials to discuss plans to rebuild Gaza, even though Israel is still moving forward with its plan to rebuild Gaza, according to a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity. They are planning to talk about it. The war continues there, failing to achieve the elusive and perhaps impossible goal of completely eradicating Hamas.
About three-quarters of Mr. Biden’s hour-long phone call with Mr. Netanyahu focused on the possibility of a ceasefire and hostage agreement, administration officials said. American officials said Israel accepted the plan drafted by the United States and placed the blame squarely on Hamas for the failure to reach an agreement, but their explanations were not constructive. The official said that during the phone conversation, the president agreed that the onus remained on Hamas to accept the latest offer.
The two leaders also discussed the hostage video Hamas released last week showing two American hostages. U.S. officials are puzzled as to why Hamas would release such videos more than six months after the hostages were taken, but the aim is to increase Israeli public pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and further push for an agreement. It may have been a request to make concessions. The hostages returned home.
The president’s call to Netanyahu comes as Biden told the prime minister that unless the country takes further steps to expedite the shipment of food and other supplies to Gaza and limit civilian casualties, Israel This came three weeks after he announced he was reconsidering his support for the war. Since then, humanitarian aid to Gaza has increased significantly, and Biden advisers credit Israel with meeting the president’s demands, although they acknowledge more aid is still needed.
Israel has withdrawn some troops from southern Gaza but said it was still planning a major attack on Rafah, where about 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge. Biden administration officials have expressed concerns about the possible operation, and Israeli officials said they would consider those comments and discuss further with their U.S. counterparts.
In a statement after the call, the White House said Biden “reiterated our clear position” on Operation Rafah and “reviewed with the prime minister ongoing discussions to ensure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as well as the release of the hostages.” ” he said. ”
“The president and prime minister also discussed increasing the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, including preparations for the opening of a new northern border starting this week,” the statement said. “The President emphasized the need to maintain and strengthen this progress in full partnership with the humanitarian community.”
As protests rocked U.S. university campuses, some critics of Netanyahu’s administration stressed Sunday that the changes his administration has made since Biden’s threat have not gone far enough.
“What Prime Minister Netanyahu’s right-wing, extremist, racist government is doing now is a modern-day “This is unprecedented in the history of war,” he said on the State of the Union on the 20th. CNN. “In the past six and a half months they have killed 33,000 Palestinians and injured 77,000, two-thirds of them women and children.”
The White House statement made only passing reference to the recent conflict between Israel and Iran, saying that “Following the successful defense against Iran’s unprecedented missile and drone attack earlier this month, “I reaffirmed my firm determination,” he said.
Israeli and American forces, with the support of their European and Arab allies, have destroyed nearly all of the more than 300 missiles and drones that Iran fired at Israel earlier this month in retaliation for Israel’s killing of senior Iranian officials. Shot down. Israel has heeded Biden’s pleas for restraint and has only launched a token counterattack, with both sides indicating they want to avoid further escalation.
With the immediate threat of a broader war fading, Biden and his team could turn their attention back to Gaza. Under a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, Israel would halt fighting for six weeks and hold prisons in exchange for the release of 40 hostages held by Hamas, mostly women, the elderly and people in poor health. Hundreds of Palestinians will be freed. Later stages of the agreement would extend the ceasefire and result in the release of more hostages.
American officials said the deal was blocked by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who lives in hiding in Gaza. Israel submitted a new counteroffer on Friday, raising the possibility of a more durable end to hostilities. Hamas, which has called for a permanent end to the war as part of any deal, said on Saturday it had received his proposal and was considering it.
Kirby expressed cautious optimism that progress is still possible.
“Hamas has not rejected it completely. They are considering this proposal.” “If we can do that, we will have six weeks of peace. This will be six weeks of no fighting, and that does not include the fighting in Rafah. What we want is six weeks of temporary peace. After the ceasefire, perhaps something more permanent could be put in place.”
Edward Wong Contributed to Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s report from the plane.
