Biden: ‘Real progress’ being made in hostage talks, but Hamas ‘in the way’ of a deal

US President Joe Biden said Thursday that he thinks his administration will be able to secure a hostage deal, even though Hamas is currently the obstacle to such an agreement.

It was an extension of the stance that the US has held for months, but Biden had not personally weighed in on the negotiations for several weeks.

As is often the case, a question about Israel was among the first to be shouted by the White House press corps as Biden wrapped up a briefing on a completely different topic — the wildfires devastating Los Angeles.

Asked to provide an update on the hostage talks, Biden was cautious about getting into detail but said, “We’re making some real progress,” adding that he had spoken with US negotiators earlier Thursday.

“I know hope springs eternal, but I’m still hopeful that we’ll be able to have a prisoner exchange.”

“Hamas is the one getting in the way of that exchange right now, but I think we may be able to get that done. We need to get it done,” he said.

For over a year, the White House has blamed Hamas for the lack of ceasefire in Gaza.

While Egyptian and Qatari diplomats along with some members of Israel’s negotiating team and even several US officials have told The Times of Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to anything more than a temporary ceasefire has been the main obstacle, Washington has refrained from voicing that belief publicly.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested in a New York Times interview last week that US pressure on Israel has led Hamas to harden its positions.

Blinken said Wednesday that mediators were “very close” to securing a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas and that an agreement is all but inevitable, even if it has to wait for the next administration in order for it to be finalized.

Earlier Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hostage envoy held a meeting with representatives of the forum representing the vast majority of hostage families who have fumed over the government’s effort to try and reach a temporary deal that will see the release of only around one-third of the remaining 98 hostages.

Gal Hirsch insisted to the families that the temporary ceasefire agreement under discussion is only one phase of a three-part deal and that two weeks into the first six-week pause, negotiations will begin on the terms of the second phase during which the remaining living hostages will be released, according to Channel 12 news.

But Netanyahu is seeking to resume fighting after the first stage, causing hostage families to worry whether there would be a second or third phase in which the remaining bodies of slain hostages would be released. The gap that Netanyahu is seeking between the first and second phases also has hostage families fearing that their loved ones won’t survive in captivity long enough to be released.

Channel 12 said Hirsch declined to say during the meeting that the government is prepared to permanently end the war — which has long been Hamas’s condition for releasing the remaining hostages.

Also Thursday, former hostage Sharon Cunio published an Arabic-language video urging her husband David’s Hamas captors to send footage showing that he is still alive.

Cunio quoted a passage from the Quran, which directs Muslims to treat hostages like other marginalized populations worthy of compassion.

שרון קוניו, שהוחזרה מהשבי בעסקה בנובמבר פונה בכאב למחבלי חמאס המחזיקים בבעלה דוד שעדיין בשבי בעזה.

בסרטון היא מבקשת מהם לראות את בעלה ולשמור על החטופים כפי שמורים חוקי האסלאם@michalpeylan pic.twitter.com/bdJiXtiJ01

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) January 9, 2025

Meanwhile, more than 800 parents of Israel Defense Forces soldiers fighting in Gaza or who previously fought in the enclave penned an open letter to Netanyahu on Thursday, accusing the premier of acting irresponsibly in managing the war, demanding he reach a deal and threatening to launch an “all-out struggle.”

A total of 396 IDF soldiers, along with a Defense Ministry contractor and police officer, have been killed in Gaza since the war broke out on October 7, 2023, with Hamas’s devastating onslaught against southern Israel, including six troops killed in the last week alone. Thousands more have suffered injuries, many of them serious.

Inside the enclave, Israeli airstrikes pounded areas in the Strip’s north and center on Thursday — a day after the body of at least one hostage previously thought to be alive was recovered.

Health officials in the Hamas-controlled Strip said the death toll in over 15 months of fighting had risen beyond 46,000, though the figure cannot be verified.

While Hamas has long pushed for a permanent ceasefire, officials familiar with the talks have told The Times of Israel that the terror group has indicated willingness in recent weeks to prioritize the first stage of the three-phase deal that has been under discussion since May.

A senior Arab diplomat said on Sunday that Hamas had approved a list of 34 hostages it was prepared to free as part of the deal.

Hamas has insisted that it does not know where all of the hostages are, but would be able to ascertain their locations and conditions if Israel agrees to a brief ceasefire. Israel has rejected the idea, insisting that Hamas knows where all of the hostages are.

Israel is seeking to maximize the number of living hostages who will be released as part of the deal, while Hamas is looking to hold onto as many hostages as possible, as long as Israel plans to resume fighting once the temporary ceasefire is over. Israeli intelligence assesses that as many as half of the hostages are still alive.

Netanyahu’s office has preferred the temporary ceasefire framework, with the premier arguing that ending the war permanently in exchange for all of the hostages would allow Hamas to regain control of Gaza. Repeated polls have indicated that the majority of the Israeli public rejects Netanyahu’s approach.

Much of Israel’s security establishment has maintained that Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war contains no exit strategy since he has refused to advance a viable alternative to Hamas’s rule, thereby allowing the terror group to repeatedly return to areas briefly cleared by the IDF. The security establishment and the international community have pushed for allowing the PA, which enjoys limited governing powers over parts of the West Bank, to return to Gaza to replace Hamas.

Netanyahu has rejected the idea out of hand, likening the PA — which backs a two-state solution — to Hamas. His far-right coalition partners have backed collapsing the PA entirely and would likely threaten to collapse the government if he considers empowering Ramallah.

The security establishment has also backed a more comprehensive deal to free the hostages, arguing that the IDF can return to Gaza if need be and that putting off the release of two-thirds of the hostages not freed in a temporary deal would likely be a death sentence for them.

The ceasefire that US, Qatari, and Egyptian mediators are trying to advance is still within the three-staged framework, but Israel this time around is much more open about the second and third phases not coming immediately after the first one. The second phase of the deal is supposed to see the release of the remaining living hostages — men of military age — and the third stage would see the release of the bodies of slain hostages. On Wednesday, the IDF announced that it had recovered the body of Youssef Ziyadne along with findings that raise concerns for the life of his son Hamza.

Hamas is demanding assurances from the mediators that there will be some linkage between the first and subsequent phases, as it seeks a permanent ceasefire. Since the weekend, Qatar has been hosting Israeli and Hamas delegations for talks, but no breakthroughs have been reported.