WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday sent letters to the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, requesting them to push for a deal with Hamas to free Israeli hostages held in Gaza., according to a senior administration official, one day after Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make extra efforts to achieve a cease-fire in the six-month-old war in Gaza.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private letters, said Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet Monday with family members of some of the estimated 100 hostages who are believed to still be in Gaza.
The letters to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, come as Biden has deployed CIA Director William Burns to Cairo for talks this weekend about the hostage crisis.
David Barnea, the head of Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and negotiators from Egypt and Qatar are expected to attend. The Hamas side of the talks is indirect, with proposals relayed through third parties to Hamas leaders sheltering in tunnels beneath Gaza.
White House officials say negotiating a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas to facilitate the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel is the only way to put a temporary cease-fire into effect and increase the flow of much-needed aid into the territory.
Biden, in his conversation with Netanyahu, emphasized that every effort must be made to secure the release of hostages, including American citizens, and discussed the importance of empowering Israeli negotiators to reach a deal, according to the official. The first phase of the proposed deal would secure the release of women and elderly, sick and wounded hostages.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said earlier Friday that Biden stressed the need to finalize a hostage deal during the Thursday conversation with Netanyahu which largely focused on Israeli airstrikes that killed seven aid workers with World Central Kitchen.
“We are coming up on six months — six months that these people have been held hostage. And what we have to consider is just the abhorrent conditions” the hostages are being held in, Kirby said. “They need to be home with their families.”
Biden had expressed optimism for a temporary cease-fire and a hostage deal during the runup to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but an agreement never materialized.
The White House said in a statement Thursday following Biden’s call with Netanyahu that the U.S. president said reaching an “immediate cease-fire” in exchange for hostages was “essential” and urged Israel to reach such an accord “without delay.”
White House officials acknowledge that Biden has become increasingly frustrated with Israel’s prosecution of a grinding war that has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians.
The war in Gaza began when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 people hostage. Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, and EU.
The Israeli military operation in Gaza, experts say, is one of the most deadly and destructive in recent history. Within two months, researchers say, the offensive has already caused more damage than the destruction of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group.
The White House has continued to support Israel despite growing domestic and international concern about Israel’s conduct of the war, and has repeatedly stated that a temporary cease-fire could have already occurred if Hamas had agreed to release the sick, the wounded, the elderly, and young women.
But the pressure on Biden has only increased since the recent airstrikes that killed the World Central Kitchen workers.
The Israeli government admitted to “mistakes” and announced some disciplinary actions against officers involved in ordering the strikes. Israel also approved a series of measures aimed at increasing the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including the reopening of a key crossing that was destroyed in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the World Central Kitchen incident is part of a broader problem with how the Israeli military is carrying out the war. Nearly 200 humanitarian aid workers have been killed since the start of the conflict.
“But the fundamental issue is not who made the mistakes, it is the military strategy and procedures in place that allow for those mistakes to multiply time and time again,” he said. “Addressing those failures requires independent investigations and meaningful and measurable change on the ground.”
