US President Joe Biden said on Monday that a truce deal between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is likely by next Monday. The President's statement comes amid reports that mediators met in Paris last Friday to negotiate a potential deal, which showed signs of progress.
"Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, by the end of the weekend," Biden said when asked when he expected a ceasefire to start. "My national security adviser tells me that we're close. We're close. We're not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we'll have a ceasefire," Biden said at an ice cream shop in New York after taping an appearance on NBC’s "Late Night With Seth Meyers."
American negotiators had been pushing hard to get a pause-for-hostages deal by Ramadan’s beginning on March 10, Reuters quoted a US official, who said optimism appeared to grow out of meetings between the Israelis and Qataris.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also hinted at the progress in the deal, stating that the US, Israel, Egypt and Qatar agreed on the 'basic contours' of the hostage deal.
However, the State Department remained cautious, saying the entire deal would depend on Hamas. "We believe a deal is possible and we hope Hamas will agree to one," department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, adding that "we need Hamas to say yes."
The thaw in discussions came after Hamas reportedly backed away from its initial demands for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. Israel, however, insists that any temporary truce deal will not guarantee an end to the war. "The major obstacles have been resolved in terms of Hamas insisting on a full withdrawal of Israeli forces and end to the war," a senior Biden administration official told CNN. "Hamas’ requirements for the numbers of Palestinians [prisoners that] would have to be freed has declined," he added.
However, Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh is said to have met Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and claimed that his group had embraced efforts to find an end to the war, and accused Israel of stalling while Gazans died under siege. "We will not allow the enemy to use negotiations as a cover for this crime," he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready for a deal but Hamas had to drop demands "from another planet."
Al Thani's office said Al Thani and the Hamas chief had discussed Qatar's efforts to broker an "immediate and permanent ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip."
Meanwhile, Netanyahu has said that the assault on Rafah was still go as planned, claiming that Israel had a plan to evacuate civilians from harm's way. On whether it would move in even if the US asks not to, Netanyahu said: "Well, we'll go in. We make our own decisions, obviously, but we'll go in ased on the idea of having also the evacuation of the civilians."
