President Biden said Monday he believed negotiators were nearing a deal that would halt Israel’s military operations in Gaza within a week in exchange for the release of at least some of the more than 100 hostages held by Hamas.
Speaking to reporters during a stop in New York, Mr. Biden offered the most hopeful assessment of the hostage talks by any major figure in days, suggesting the war may be approaching a major turning point.
“I hope by the end of the weekend,” he said when asked by reporters when he expected a ceasefire to begin. “My national security adviser tells me we’re close. We are close. We’re not done yet. I hope that next Monday we will have a ceasefire.”
The president made the comments offhand in response to questions during a visit to an ice cream shop after taping a segment on Seth Meyers’ late-night talk show. They came amid an active period of talks in the region, as Israel’s war cabinet over the weekend approved the general terms of a deal that would include a six-week truce to free about 40 hostages. An Israeli delegation is expected to meet in Qatar with mediators from the United States, Egypt and Qatar.
An agreement on a long ceasefire would halt Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which has killed thousands of Palestinians and created a humanitarian crisis. It could also provide an opening for an increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, where food, water, electricity and other basic goods are in short supply.
A negotiated deal would be a dramatic, and perhaps defining, moment in the nearly five-month-old Middle East conflict and could lead to the release of the six remaining American hostages, who were among 200 captured and taken to Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel.
It could also mean eventual freedom for dozens of other hostages still in captivity. Their families are waging a pressure campaign in Israel and around the world to demand their release, even as Israel has responded to Hamas attacks with a heavy ground and air assault.
Mr. Biden did not elaborate on Monday about the details of the cease-fire or whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had signed an agreement. But the president’s assessment that something could be accomplished within a week was the clearest sign of progress in several weeks.
For Mr. Biden, helping to orchestrate a lasting deal to end the fighting could be an important step toward addressing a difficult political vulnerability as he seeks a second term in the White House.
For months, Palestinian activists in the United States have attacked Mr. Biden for what they see as his failure to do more to prevent civilian deaths in Gaza. Protesters have mobbed the president at most of his public appearances in recent weeks, sometimes holding signs calling him “Genocide Joe.”
That anger is likely to play out on Tuesday, when Democratic voters in Michigan go to the polls to make their choice for the party’s presidential nominee. Some activists in Michigan, where many Palestinian Americans live, urged voters to protest Mr. Biden’s stance on Gaza by voting “non-aligned” in the primary.
The timing of Mr. Biden’s response to a reporter’s blunt question could undermine that effort and help the president make a show of strength in the primaries.
Efforts to secure an end to the fighting have been underway since the early days of the war, although the president and his aides have repeatedly defended Israel’s responsibility to respond to the worst terror attack in its history.
At the same time, the government is under increasing pressure to rein in Israel’s government in light of the mounting death toll in Gaza, which Gaza health officials say exceeds 29,000, most of them civilians. In November, the United States helped broker a brief lull in the fighting that led to the release of about 100 hostages. Israel’s military offensive continued after a ceasefire was broken due to disputes with Hamas.
In recent weeks, negotiators have expressed optimism that talks between the parties are moving in the right direction. But the talks were taking place against a backdrop of Mr Netanyahu’s threats that the country’s forces were ready for a major offensive in Rafah, in southern Gaza.
More than a million civilians, many of them fleeing Israel’s shelling of northern Gaza, are concentrated in Rafah, and aid groups have warned that a major Israeli offensive there could kill thousands more.
Mr. Biden spoke with Mr. Netanyahu on February 15, and White House officials said in a summary of the call that the two men “discussed the ongoing hostage negotiations” and that the president “reaffirmed his commitment to working tirelessly to support the release of all the hostages”.
