President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday to discuss the prospects for a possible ceasefire agreement to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, while repeating his warnings about a new Israeli attack on the city of Rafah, southern Gaza. officials said.
The call was intended to pave the way for Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, who left Washington just hours earlier on Sunday for his final trip to the Middle East aimed at de-escalating the war in Gaza. Blinken headed to Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with Egyptian and Qatari officials who have served as intermediaries with Hamas in ceasefire and hostage talks, which remain stalled.
The State Department announced while Blinken was in flight on Sunday that after attending a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh, he would also make stops in Jordan and Israel. The secretary has been a key player in the Biden administration’s efforts to negotiate an end to the war, increase humanitarian aid and secure the release of more than 100 hostages believed to still be in Gaza from the Hamas-led terrorist attack. on October 7.
“That will be at the top of Secretary Blinken’s list, to continue pushing for this temporary ceasefire,” White House national security spokesman John F. Kirby said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We want it to last about six weeks. “It will allow all those hostages to leave and, of course, it will allow easier access of aid to places in Gaza, particularly in the north.”
He has also been leading debates about what will come after the war ends. During his stop in Saudi Arabia, according to a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity, Blinken hopes to meet with Arab and European officials in a group to discuss plans to rebuild Gaza, even though Israel is still carrying out its war there and has not achieved its elusive – and perhaps impossible – goal of completely eradicating Hamas.
An administration official said about three-quarters of Biden’s nearly hour-long call with Netanyahu focused on the potential ceasefire and hostage deal. U.S. officials have said Israel has accepted the U.S.-drafted plan and have squarely blamed Hamas for the failure to reach an agreement, which they describe as unconstructive. During the call, the president agreed that the responsibility for accepting the latest proposal remained with Hamas, the official said.
The two leaders also discussed hostage videos released by Hamas last week, including those showing two hostages with American citizenship. US officials have been puzzled over why Hamas would release such videos more than six months after taking the hostages, although it is possible that the goal was to increase Israeli public pressure on Netanyahu to make more concessions to reach a deal that would allowed hostages to be brought home.
The president’s call to Netanyahu came three weeks after Biden told the prime minister he would reconsider his support for Israel’s war unless the country did more to facilitate the delivery of food and other supplies to Gaza and limit casualties. civilians. Since then, humanitarian aid to Gaza has increased substantially and Biden’s advisers credit Israel for responding to the president’s demands, although they acknowledge that more is still needed.
Israel has withdrawn some of its forces from southern Gaza but says it is still planning a major attack on Rafah, where around a million Palestinians have taken refuge. Biden administration officials have expressed concerns about the possible operation, and Israeli officials have said they will take those comments into consideration and consult further with their American counterparts.
In a statement after the call, the White House said Biden “reiterated his clear position” on any operation in Rafah and reviewed with the prime minister “ongoing discussions to secure the release of the hostages along with an immediate ceasefire.” in Gaza.” .”
“The president and prime minister also discussed increases in the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, including through preparations to open new crossings in the north starting this week,” the statement said. “The president highlighted the need for this progress to be maintained and improved in full coordination with humanitarian organizations.”
As protests shook American college campuses, some critics of Netanyahu’s government stressed Sunday that the changes it has made since Biden’s threat had not gone far enough.
“Right now, what Netanyahu’s right-wing, extremist, racist government is doing is unprecedented in the modern history of warfare,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Democratic socialist from Vermont who is part of the Democrats, at the “State of the Union” program. CNN. “In the last six and a half months they have killed 33,000 Palestinians and injured 77,000, two-thirds of whom are women and children.”
The White House statement made only a passing reference to the recent standoff between Israel and Iran, saying only that Biden “reaffirmed his strong commitment to Israel’s security following the successful defense against the unprecedented missile and drone attack.” from Iran earlier this month.”
Israeli and US forces, with the help of European and Arab allies, shot down almost all of the more than 300 missiles and drones fired by Iran at Israel earlier this month in retaliation for Israel’s killing of senior Iranian officials. Israel, heeding Biden’s calls for restraint, responded only with a symbolic counterattack, and both sides have indicated they want to avoid further escalation.
Now that the immediate threat of a broader war appears to fade, Biden and his team could refocus their attention on Gaza. Under the US-sponsored ceasefire proposal, Israel would halt hostilities for six weeks and release hundreds of Palestinians held in its prisons in exchange for the release of 40 hostages held by Hamas, mainly women, elderly men and people with disabilities. of health. Later stages of the agreement would extend the ceasefire and lead to the release of more hostages.
U.S. officials have said that Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who lives in hiding in Gaza, has blocked a deal. Israel put a new counterproposal on the table Friday, raising the prospect of a more sustained end to hostilities. Hamas, which has demanded a permanent end to the war as part of any deal, said Saturday it had received the proposal and was considering it.
Mr. Kirby expressed cautious optimism that progress was still possible.
“Hamas has not rejected it completely. “They are considering this proposal on the table,” he said. “If we can achieve this, we will have six weeks of peace. “There is no fighting for six weeks, and that includes no fighting in Rafah, and what we hope is that after six weeks of a temporary ceasefire, maybe we can achieve something more lasting.”
Eduardo Wong contributed reports from Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s plane.