By Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said on Monday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not doing enough to secure a deal for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hamas and the U.S. was close to presenting a final proposal to negotiators working on a hostage and ceasefire agreement.
Biden was speaking to reporters at the White House after Israeli forces over the weekend recovered the bodies of six hostages, including 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, from a tunnel in Gaza. Israel’s military said they had been recently killed by Palestinian Hamas militants.
That has sparked criticism of the Biden administration’s Gaza ceasefire strategy and ratcheted up pressure on Netanyahu from Israelis to bring the remaining hostages home.
Asked whether he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to reach a hostage deal, Biden said “No.” He did not elaborate on his remarks.
Netanyahu appeared to push back when asked about Biden’s comments, saying pressure should be applied to Hamas, not Israel, particularly after the hostages’ deaths.
“And now after this we’re asked to show seriousness? We’re asked to make concessions? What message does this send Hamas? It says, kill more hostages,” he told a news conference in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said he did not believe Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace would ask Israel to make more concessions and that instead it was Hamas that needed to do so.
Asked if he was planning to present a final hostage deal to both sides this week, Biden told reporters: “We’re very close to that.”
“Hope springs eternal,” he added when asked whether a deal would be successful.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris also met with the U.S. hostage negotiation team, during which the president expressed “devastation and outrage” at the hostages’ murders, and they discussed the next steps in efforts to free the remaining captives, the White House said.
Biden’s fresh criticism of Netanyahu comes as he and Harris, who has replaced the president at the top of the Democratic ticket for the Nov. 5 election, face increased calls for decisive action to end the nearly 11-month-old war in Gaza.
The conflict has sown divisions among Democrats, with many progressives pressing Biden to restrict or at least place conditions on U.S. weapon supplies to Israel, Washington’s chief Middle East ally.
ISRAEL AND HAMAS RESPOND TO BIDEN
Senior Israeli sources said it was “remarkable” that Biden was pressuring Netanyahu over a hostage deal rather than Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
They said Biden’s statement that Netanyahu was not doing enough was also dangerous because it came days after Hamas executed six hostages, including an American.
In response to the Israeli comment, a U.S. official said that while Biden had been clear that Hamas was to blame for the hostages’ deaths, “he is also calling for urgency from the Israeli government in securing the release of the missing remaining hostages.”
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Biden’s criticism of Netanyahu was “American recognition that Netanyahu was responsible for undermining efforts to reach a deal.”
He said the group would respond positively to a proposal that could secure a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave.
Netanyahu, who has accused Hamas of obstructing any agreement, said over the weekend that “whoever murders hostages does not want a deal.”
Israeli protesters took to the streets on Monday for a second day, and the largest trade union launched a general strike to press the government to reach a deal to return the hostages.
Months of stop-start negotiations mediated by the U.S., Qatar and Egypt have so far failed to reach an accord on a Gaza proposal laid out by Biden in May.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Matt Spetalnick; additional reporting by James Mackenzie in Jerusaem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Steve Holland in Detroit; writing by Matt Spetalnick and Douglas Gillison; Editing by Toby Chopra, Gareth Jones, Cynthia Osterman and Sandra Maler)
