CNN
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President Joe Biden is due to speak on the Middle East situation later on Friday as work continues to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a temporary ceasefire in the war in Gaza and as Israel announces that its forces have entered the center of Rafah, a southern Gaza city that Biden had warned should not be targeted in a major ground offensive.
Israel presented new proposals to mediators this week on the hostage issue and ceasefire talks, a diplomatic source familiar with the negotiations said on Tuesday, without elaborating on the contents of the new proposal.
Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to secure the hostages’ release were suspended without an agreement three weeks ago after the two sides failed to reach agreement on several conditions.
Hamas said on Thursday it had told mediators it was “ready to reach a comprehensive agreement” including a full exchange of hostages and prisoners if Israel halted its war in Gaza.
Hamas said in a statement that it had responded “flexibly and positively” to efforts by mediators through previous indirect talks, but that Israel had used months of negotiations as a cover to continue its war in Gaza.
“Hamas and the Palestinian factions will not accept any part in this policy of continued negotiations in the face of aggression, murder, siege, starvation and genocide against our people,” the Hamas statement said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the war must continue until Hamas is completely destroyed.
The president, who returned to the White House from his Delaware coastal home in the early hours of the morning, has avoided commenting on the situation in Israel in recent days. He has not commented publicly on the Israeli attack in Rafah that killed dozens of civilians.
The White House called images of the tragedy “heartbreaking” but said the incident did not cross President Biden’s red line of suspending some U.S. arms exports to Israel.
Biden is scheduled to speak as negotiations continue between Israel and Hamas to secure the hostages’ release in exchange for a temporary ceasefire in the fighting. Israel recently announced a new proposal to secure the hostages’ release.
In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett this month, the president said the US would limit arms supplies to Israel if Israeli forces “invaded Rafah.”
But Biden has remained vague about how he would quantify such a move, sparking frustration and some confusion over the stance. Many Democrats and foreign leaders the U.S. considers allies have said Israel’s actions clearly crossed a line — if not Biden’s, then their own and international law.
White House officials sought to explain Biden’s stance this week, suggesting a “major ground invasion” of the city would be an indicator of any change in policy.
National security spokesman John Kirby said that would be clear if a major ground invasion were to begin: “You’re going to have tens or thousands of troops moving in a coordinated series of operations against a variety of targets on the ground at a large scale. That’s a large-scale ground operation. It’s pretty simple.”
While the Middle East is the president’s biggest foreign policy challenge, domestic attention has been focused on the New York conviction of his predecessor, Donald Trump, in a hush-money case. It is unclear when and how Biden plans to directly address the verdict.
This is breaking news and will be updated.
