Biden, Harris to huddle with US negotiators for Gaza deal push after hostage killings
White House working on ‘take it or leave it’ proposal that could spell end of US mediation efforts, Washington Post reports; Israel’s UN envoy demands Security Council convene
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were scheduled to hold a meeting Monday with hostage negotiators, as senior officials in Washington expressed outrage at Hamas and redoubled their push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza following the execution of six abducted Israelis by their captors.
Among those whose bodies were recovered one to two days after being shot to death in a Hamas tunnel beneath the Gaza city of Rafah was Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, with Biden and others expressing horror and fury over the killings.
Participants in the situation room meeting, which will bring Biden back to the White House from his Labor Day vacation in Delaware, will discuss how to progress toward a deal that will free the remaining hostages, the White House said.
It said the meeting would be held with “the US hostage deal negotiating team,” though it was unclear if this referred to the team of mediators led by CIA director Bill Burns seeking to push Israel and Hamas toward a deal, or the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, which has been involved in bringing captive Americans home from Russia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The White House has been working with Egypt and Qatar to put together one final outline for a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
In Israel, pressure has built in recent weeks for the government to abandon its final demands holding up a deal and bring the hostages home, with the news that three or possibly four of the six executed captives could have been released in the first phase of a potential agreement fueling angry protests and a nationwide strike Monday.
There remain 101 hostages in Gaza, all but four of them abducted during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught in southern Israel, including seven hostages holding American citizenship.
The families of the seven held a virtual meeting with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and White House Mideast czar Brett McGurk Sunday to discuss the weekend’s recovery of the six bodies and ceasefire negotiations.
“Sullivan told the families that the next few days will be critical in the push to free the remaining 101 hostages,” the American hostage families said in a joint statement.
The White House said Sullivan “discussed the ongoing diplomatic push across the highest levels of the US government to drive towards a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages.”
The families told the top Biden aides “that all parties must unite on the demand that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu close the deal with Hamas and bring the hostages home.”
Sullivan agreed to hold a follow-up meeting with the American families later this week.
In a separate statement, the seven families demanded that Netanyahu finalize a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, echoing calls by the main groups representing the families of the hostages in Israel.
“The tragic murder of Hersh, just months after we all saw his face in a hostage video released by Hamas, is nothing short of vicious and senseless,” the American hostage families said. “It is more proof that Hamas is killing hostages in captivity.”
“And it is a cruel reminder that with each passing day, the chances of bringing anyone home alive are at grave risk,” the families continued.
Also Sunday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke on the phone with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant about the IDF’s recovery of the remains of the six slain hostages. Gallant on Sunday called for the government to walk back a decision to press its demand for continued Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border to prevent Hamas smuggling in arms, a major sticking point in talks.
Austin “passed along his deepest condolences to the families of all of the slain hostages and he expressed outrage at their vicious, illegal, and immoral execution at the hands of Hamas,” according to a US statement.
Austin “affirmed that Hamas leaders must be held accountable for their crimes, and the pair reaffirmed their mutual commitment to swiftly reaching a ceasefire deal to secure the release of all of the hostages,” the Pentagon said.
‘Take it or leave it’
US officials have insisted that talks for a deal stopping the fighting in Gaza and releasing the hostages is close at hand, but major gaps remain between the sides, including whether the halt will be permanent and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel have oversight over the Philadelphi Corridor, which Israel says is a major smuggling route on the Egypt-Gaza frontier.
According to the Washington Post, a “take it or leave it” outline being developed by the US, Egypt and Qatar has been in the works since before Israel discovered the bodies of six hostages over the weekend. If rejected,v it may spell the end of American mediation efforts, the report said.
“You can’t keep negotiating this. This process has to be called at some point,” an unnamed senior official in US President Joe Biden’s administration was quoted saying.
The official added that the discovery of the hostages’ bodies should not push a deal off track. “If anything, it should add additional urgency in this closing phase, which we were already in,” they said.
However, the official acknowledged that the list of hostages to be released and the Palestinian security prisoners to be freed in an exchange would still have to be painstakingly renegotiated.
“US officials are going to be burning up the phones over the next 48 hours to see if a deal can still be reached,” a second unnamed senior US official was quoted as saying.
Democratic US vice presidential nominee Tim Walz weighed in on the recovery of the six hostages, blasting Hamas for its “atrocities.”
“The anguish of losing a child is something no family should have to endure. Gwen and I send our deepest condolences to the Goldberg-Polin family, after Hamas’ murder of their son Hersh,” Walz tweeted.
“Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization — and we condemn their continued atrocities against both Americans and Israelis in the strongest possible terms,” he added.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, posted to his Truth Social network that the deaths of the Israeli hostages “happened because Comrade Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden are poor Leaders. Americans are getting slaughtered overseas… They have blood on their hands! Sadly, this is the total lack of ‘Leadership’ that Kamala and Biden represent.”
He added: “Our Country and our amazing people are not safe under Joe Biden, and will be less safe under Kamala Harris. This terror would have never happened if I were President, and it will stop the day I am back in the Oval Office.”
On Sunday, UN Ambassador Danny Danon demanded that the United Nations Security Council call an urgent meeting to condemn Hamas and “to address the dire situation of the 101 hostages still held in captivity in Gaza.”
In a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Security Council president Samuel Zgobar of Slovenia, Danon lamented the fact that “the Council has yet to condemn Hamas nor act decisively for the hostages.”
Danon pointed out that Israel has accepted proposals for a hostage release deal, while Hamas continues to refuse US-backed formulas.
Two thousand people gathered at Columbus Circle in New York City on Sunday night for a vigil mourning the six hostages, an impromptu gathering of song, prayer, and tears.
The six hostages were killed 48 to 72 hours before their autopsy, meaning between Thursday and Friday morning, the Health Ministry said Sunday.
The ministry added that an examination carried out by Abu Kabir Forensic Institute found that all six hostages were shot multiple times from close range, indicating they were executed.
The IDF had said that Hamas terrorists murdered the hostages relatively shortly before troops located their bodies on Saturday afternoon in a tunnel in Rafah.
