Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris publicly told Jewish Americans that they would continue to pursue a ceasefire deal to secure the release of the hostages Hamas is holding in Gaza — but there are few signs that the stalled talks have progressed.
“My administration is doubling down on our work to secure the release of the remaining hostages, just as we have freed hostages already. And we will not rest until they’re all home,” Biden told Jewish faith leaders on Wednesday, while Harris said, “We are not giving up on a ceasefire and hostage deal. We cannot,” during a Friday call organized by “Jewish Voters for Harris-Walz.”
Biden has repeatedly said it is a goal of his to secure the release of the hostages before the end of his presidency, but it is unclear whether the stalled talks will see any progress given the spread of the war from Gaza to Lebanon and possibly beyond.
The president spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, and, according to a White House readout of the call, “the leaders discussed the urgent need to renew diplomacy to release the hostages held by Hamas.”
Hamas kidnapped roughly 250 people during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks in southern Israel, about 100 of whom are still being held against their will more than a year later. The Biden administration and the Qatari and Egyptian governments have acted as mediators between Israel and Hamas, and despite getting close at various points, there has been no deal since the weeklong ceasefire in late November 2023.
Seven Americans are believed to be among the remaining hostages, four of whom are thought to be alive.
The U.S. efforts have been led in part by CIA Director William Burns, who has frequently traveled to the Middle East to meet with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel.
“We’ve come close at least a couple of times, but it’s been very elusive,” Burns said during a moderated question-and-answer session at the Cipher Brief threat conference in Sea Island, Georgia, this week.
The three leaders thought they had a deal in July when they met at a private Qatari-owned village in Rome, but Israel’s lead negotiator, David Barnea, head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, came with a new “clarification” from the Israeli side that threw a wrench into the progress they had made, according to the Financial Times.
That new roadblock from the Israeli negotiating team was that they intended to keep Israeli forces along the Philadelphi Corridor, the strip of land that runs along the Gaza-Egypt border. Israeli leaders, including Netanyahu argued that controlling the border would prevent the smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Gaza and described it as a national security threat.
U.S. officials have also, more recently, cited Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as the primary impediment to a ceasefire deal that would release the hostages.
“And then you’ve got to go make hard choices and some compromises in the interest of a longer-term strategic stability as well,” Burns added.
The families of the hostages have accused Israel’s government of failing them and their loved ones held by Hamas, whom they believe are in danger of being killed every day they are not returned.
“We have clear evidence over the last few months that their lives are absolutely in danger, and more and more of them are being killed,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son is among the hostages, previously told the Washington Examiner. “Whatever Israel’s military achievements might be, and intelligence successes might be in this widening regional war, and none of them can compensate for the fact that we as a country and as a society must get these hostages home.”
The message was brutally demonstrated when Hamas murdered six hostages — Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, Master Sgt. Ori Danino, and Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin — in a tunnel underneath the southern city of Gaza. Israeli forces were able to locate their bodies days later. A Hamas official said in the aftermath that a directive had been given to kill hostages if they believed an Israeli rescue operation was underway.
Goldberg-Polin’s parents described in an interview on Israeli television this week the lack of urgency Israeli officials showed during conversations about getting the hostages home.
“Why are you confident that we have time and that this isn’t going to lead to a situation where too much military pressure [will] lead to captors lining up hostages, shooting them one by one in the head?” Jon Polin, his father, said on Channel 12 news. “And we were told by people all over the place, ‘No, no, it’s not going to end like that.’ We asked that very question: ‘Why won’t it end this way?’ We were immediately told each time … ‘They’re an asset — there are reasons why it’s not going to go that way.’”
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Dekel-Chen acknowledged his belief the hostages will likely be killed in the next couple of months if a deal is not agreed upon before then.
“What’s at stake in Gaza is shaped by political will,” Burns stressed. “In the end, it’s not just about brackets in texts or creative formulas when you’re trying to negotiate a hostage and ceasefire deal. It’s about leaders who ultimately have to recognize that enough is enough, that perfect is rarely on the menu, especially in the Middle East.”