President Joe Biden downplayed expectations for a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, citing the terrorist organization’s response to his three-phase peace proposal.
“The bottom line is that I laid down an approach that has been endorsed by the Israelis and the U.N. Security Council,” Biden told reporters Thursday during a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Group of Seven leaders summit in Italy.
“The biggest hangup so far is Hamas, which is refusing to sign up to it, even though they have submitted something similar,” he said. “Whether it comes to fruition remains to be seen. We are going to continue pushing.”
During an earlier G7 event, Biden was asked by reporters with him in Fasano whether he was confident the two sides would agree to an arrangement soon.
“No,” he replied. “I haven’t lost hope.”
National security adviser Jake Sullivan described some of Hamas’s counterproposals as “modest or minor” and others as “not consistent” with what Biden and the Security Council have endorsed.
“Our goal is to figure out how we work to bridge the remaining gaps and get to a deal,” Sullivan told reporters during a separate roundtable. “We’re going to work with Qatar and Egypt. Qatar and Egypt will work with Hamas. Qatar, Egypt, and the United States will work with Israel. And the goal is to try to bring this to a conclusion as rapidly as possible.”
“I can’t give you a timetable for that,” he said. “We still believe that it is important for the world to continue to train the focus on Hamas, who has said on behalf of the Palestinian — on behalf of, you know, its leadership and, you know, its view of what is happening in Gaza — that it wants to get to a ceasefire. If, in fact, it does, there’s a ceasefire on the table. They should take it and not try to push this thing in a direction where we just get to stalemate.”
The first phase of Biden and Israel’s “comprehensive” road map would include a six-week ceasefire, Biden said last month.
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That “full and complete ceasefire” would include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” and the release of a number of hostages, such as women, the elderly, and the wounded, in exchange for “hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners, Biden told reporters at the White House.
Phase two would include the exchange of all remaining living hostages, such as male soldiers, and Israel withdrawing from Gaza. The third phase would include “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza” and “any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed” being “returned to their families,” Biden said.