Speaking with reporters, US President Joe Biden acknowledges that the Israeli prime minister is not going far enough in negotiating a truce and the release of captives with Hamas.
US President Joe Biden claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not going far enough in negotiating the release of detainees kidnapped by Hamas.
When asked if he thought the Israeli prime minister was doing enough on the matter by reporters on Monday at the White House, where Biden was arriving for a meeting with US negotiators, the president answered, “No.”
Following the deaths of six prisoners in Gaza on Saturday, one of whom was an American citizen, Biden will meet with the negotiators on the prisoner swap agreement.
The president declared that a final proposal to be made to Israel and Hamas was “very close” to being negotiated.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is vying to succeed Biden in November’s presidential election, also attended the White House meeting, which required a change in Biden’s itinerary.
A White House statement earlier said he and Harris would meet “with the US hostage deal negotiating team following the murder of American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday, and discuss efforts to drive towards a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages.”
The United States has been promoting a prisoner swap and ceasefire in the Gaza conflict for months, working with other mediators Egypt and Qatar.
During the October 7 raid on Israel that precipitated Israel’s bloody war on Gaza, Hamas fighters took 251 prisoners, 33 of whom the Israeli military claims are dead, and 97 of whom are still within the besieged enclave.
In November, a one-week truce resulted in the freeing of several prisoners.
A strike scheduled by the largest union in the nation to increase pressure on Netanyahu’s government to win the release of the remaining hostages was put on hold by an Israeli court on Monday.
Advocates and relatives of the prisoners have demanded a quick ceasefire, accusing Netanyahu’s government of not doing enough to save their lives.
An AFP count based on Israeli official numbers shows that 1,205 persons, largely civilians, were killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack in addition to the hostages taken.
According to the Gaza health ministry, Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza has resulted in more than 40,786 Palestinian deaths since the start of the conflict.
The UN human rights office reports that women and children make up the majority of the dead.
