A deal to release the remaining 115 hostages must be closed soon, particularly given the ‘gaps’ are closer than ever, President Joe Biden is expected to tell Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu when the two meet at the White House on Thursday in Washington.
“The President feels we’ve got to get this hostage deal in place, so we can get a ceasefire in place, at least for phase one,” US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told reporters at the White House while the two leaders met in the oval office.
Directly after that conversation the two leaders will meet relatives of the eight hostages held in Gaza who hold dual Israeli-US citizenship. It is Biden’s second such meeting in the White House with a group representing captives in Gaza.
At issue for the White House is getting started on a three-phase deal that Biden first unveiled on May 31. The first six-week phase of that deal would see the release of some 33 to 18 live or dead hostages in exchange for a lull in the war.
On day 16, both sides would begin talks on the question of a permanent ceasefire. Netanyahu has approved sending a negotiating team to Doha but has said he wants to wait for them to depart until after his conversations at the White House.
His critics and many of the relatives of hostages have accused him of sabotaging the deal by inserting extra demands and delaying the dispatch of a negotiating team.
Kirby said it was particularly important to get started on phase one. “There are gaps that remain, and our team continues to work with our counterparts in the region to see if we can’t close those gaps,” Kirby said.
His words referred to Egypt and Qatar, which have been the main mediating countries for the deal.
Close, but not done yet
The US believes that the gaps between Israelis and Hamas can be closed and that “ we can achieve a deal, but it’s going to require, as it always does, some leadership, some compromise, and an effort to get there. “
The President “believes we need to get there, and we need to get there soon,” he said.
Netanyahu angered relatives of the hostages and his opponents during his address Wednesday to a joint session of Congress when he emphasized the importance of victory over Hamas rather than ending the war in exchange for a hostage deal.
He told Congress that he wanted both victory over Hamas and to free the hostages.
Kirby told repeaters that the two leaders would also discuss the IDF-Hezbollah war on Israel’s northern border and “of course, the need, the critical need for stability in the West Bank.”
“They’ll also discuss the United States ironclad commitment, of course, to Israel’s security, including countering the very serious threats that Iran and its proxy groups continue to demonstrate throughout the region,” Kirby said.
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