White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said that the Biden administration has “every expectation” that Israel will accept a ceasefire if Hamas accepts its new proposal.
In an appearance on ABC News’s This Week, Kirby discussed the newest ceasefire proposal, which was announced by President Joe Biden on Friday. He gave a confident assessment of the proposal and said the administration had “every expectation” that Israel would accept a ceasefire if Hamas agreed.
“Well, it is an Israeli proposal, one that they arrived at after intense diplomacy with our own national security team and over at the State Department,” Kirby said. “We’re waiting for an official response from Hamas — we would note that, publicly, Hamas officials came out and welcomed this proposal. So what we hope would happen is they would agree to start phase one as soon as possible, and phase one would allow for some hostages, the elderly, sick women, hostages, to get out over a period of six weeks.”
The ceasefire proposal has three phases, according to Biden. The first would involve a six-week ceasefire and the exchange of certain hostages for hundreds of imprisoned Palestinians. The second would exchange the remaining hostages and have the withdrawal of all Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The third and final stage would involve the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of any remains of hostages.
Kirby dismissed concerns from ABC host George Stephanopoulos that, based on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s public statements, Israel may reject anything Hamas agrees to.
“No, this was an Israeli proposal; we have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal, as was transmitted to them, an Israeli proposal, that Israel would say yes again,” Kirby said.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu’s team, in fact, his foreign minister, just said that they welcome this, this announcement by the president, and that they did, in fact, agree that this was their proposal,” Kirby said.
Netanyahu’s office stressed in a statement after Biden’s speech on Friday that the war will not end until the complete destruction of Hamas, something that may complicate ceasefire talks.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
His office said that “the war will not end until all of [Israel’s] goals are achieved, including the return of all our hostages and the elimination of Hamas’ military and governmental capabilities.”
“The exact outline proposed by Israel, including the conditional transition from stage to stage, allows Israel to maintain these principles,” Netanyahu’s office wrote.