President Biden has finally managed to unite Israel and Hamas on one point: Both sides say his prediction of an imminent cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement is wildly optimistic and out of touch with the realities on the ground.
Mr. Biden would dearly love a break in the nearly five-month war for his own domestic political reasons, but Israeli officials said the president’s statement Monday came as a surprise.
Top Hamas leaders also threw cold water on Mr. Biden’s assertion that a temporary cease-fire to get Israeli hostages out of Gaza during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is in the works.
Hamas official Ahmad Abdelhadi told a Lebanese broadcaster that the Palestinian militant group was sticking to its demand for a permanent cease-fire before it releases more than 100 people still held inside the densely populated Gaza Strip enclave.
“The resistance is not interested in giving up any of its demands, and what is proposed does not meet what it had requested,” he told the Pan-Arab TV channel Al Mayadeen. “We will not give up on ending the war.”
Hamas spokesman Basem Naim told reporters that the group had not received any proposals since mediators met in Paris last week.
SEE ALSO: Hamas shoots down Biden’s talk of temporary cease-fire in Gaza
Members of the Islamist group, whose terrorist rampage through southern Israel on Oct. 7 started the latest round of fighting, previously demanded that Israel end the war as part of any deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the idea “delusional.”
The quick rejections by both sides seemed to contradict Mr. Biden’s comments during a Monday interview with Seth Meyers on NBC’s “Late Night” and his remarks afterward, when he said a temporary cease-fire deal could be reached before the March 10 start of Ramadan.
The U.S. and international aid groups have been working feverishly for a halt in the fighting to prevent more civilian casualties and to reopen aid flows to Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Mr. Biden’s remark “tells me that we’re close, we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a cease-fire.”
Qatar, the Gulf Arab nation hosting multinational talks on a cease-fire deal, said in a Foreign Ministry statement Tuesday that negotiators had achieved no breakthrough but remained “upbeat and optimistic” about the course of the talks.
Negotiators from the U.S., Egypt and Qatar said in recent weeks that they had made some progress toward a six-week cease-fire that would include the trade of Israeli hostages for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and an increase in aid to the beleaguered people in Gaza.
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State Department spokesman Matt Miller told reporters in Washington there were signs of progress on a deal despite the pushback to Mr. Biden’s comments.
“What’s underpinning the president’s optimism is looking at the broad outlines of a deal that we have put in place through negotiations last week and negotiations that are continuing through this week, and the fact that he believes and we believe [a deal] is within reach,” Mr. Miller said. “That said, to be clear, we don’t have one yet. Hamas will need to agree to one. But we do think it’s possible and we’re going to continue to push for it, and we want to see it happen as soon as possible.”
The late November cease-fire allowed for the release of about 100 hostages held by Hamas in exchange for about 240 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, as well as a brief halt in the fighting. Roughly 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but Israel says about a quarter of them are dead.
U.S. political timing
The timing of Mr. Biden’s optimism is notable. He floated the idea of a cease-fire on the eve of the presidential primary election in Michigan, home to large populations of Muslims and Arab Americans critical of the administration’s strong tilt toward Israel in the war.
Thousands of Democratic voters could desert Mr. Biden and vote “uncommitted” to protest the administration’s support for Israel as the Palestinian death toll rises.
Any cracks in the Democratic base heading into November could be devastating for Mr. Biden, who narrowly won Michigan in 2020 en route to his victory over President Trump.
Mr. Trump won the state in 2016 by a roughly 10,700-vote margin over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators said they were hopeful for 10,000 voters to opt “uncommitted” on Tuesday to send a message to Mr. Biden.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a liberal California Democrat, told Politico that the timing of Mr. Biden’s cease-fire remarks was probably intentional.
“Nothing in politics is a coincidence,” he said. “This is happening because the president is hearing that a large part of his coalition wants this war to end.”
Houthi attacks
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Tuesday that a string of disruptive attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen had not had a major impact on shipping or international commerce.
“We’ve not seen a significant impact on the global economy, but we continue to monitor this closely,” Ms. Yellen said on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit of industrialized and emerging-market nations in Brazil. The Biden administration is “coordinating with our allies to sanction leaders and supporters of multiple terrorist actors, including Hamas, the Houthis and other Iranian proxies. The global economy cannot be undermined by terrorism.”
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam told the Reuters news agency Tuesday that the rebel group would continue its missile and drone strikes on international shipping until the Israeli “siege” of Gaza is lifted.
Ms. Yellen revealed that she had personally appealed to Mr. Netanyahu to boost economic links with Gaza as part of a long-term political settlement to the crisis. Israel has faced criticism at home and abroad over a lack of clarity for envisioned political relations with Palestinians when the military mission concludes.
The original Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and Palestinian health officials say nearly 30,000 people, primarily civilians living in Gaza, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory operation.
U.S. officials are pushing for a pause in the fighting to head off a threatened Israeli assault on Hamas positions in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge to escape the fighting in other parts of the enclave.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.