Calling to de-escalate, Biden says Haniyeh’s death has ‘not helped’ negotiations
US president says he had a ‘very direct’ conversation with Netanyahu, adds PM should ‘move’ on hostage-ceasefire outline, as Iran vows revenge for terror leaders’ assassinations
US President Joe Biden said Thursday night he was “very concerned” that violence in the Middle East could escalate, adding that this week’s assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran has “not helped” efforts to negotiate a hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza, where Israel is at war with the terror group.
Israel has not commented on Haniyeh’s killing, but has been blamed for it by Iran and Hamas, who have vowed revenge.
Biden said he’d had a “very direct” conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the day, repeating the phrase “very direct.”
In that call, the president promised US support for Israel in the event of an Iranian attack, as the Islamic Republic vowed revenge for both Haniyeh’s death and Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut Tuesday.
The killings came days after a Hezbollah rocket attack killed 12 children and teens in the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights.
Biden urged de-escalation Thursday night and reiterated his call for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and return those held captive by the terror group.
“We have the basis for a ceasefire,” Biden said, speaking on the tarmac of an air base outside Washington after welcoming three Americans freed in a prisoner swap with Russia. Israel “should move on it and they should move on it now,” the president said.
Israel and Hamas both assented to a framework presented by Biden in May, which would see the staged release of the Gaza captives in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners and a temporary ceasefire that, through negotiations, could be made permanent in the second of the deal’s three six-week stages.
In July, amid Israeli military advances in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued four “non-negotiable” demands that were not specifically set out in the previous proposal, including a mechanism to prevent armed gunmen returning to northern Gaza and ongoing Israeli control of the Gaza-Egypt border corridor. An updated Israeli proposal was submitted to the US on Saturday, and discussed by Mossad chief David Barnea with mediators in Qatar on Sunday.
Biden’s comments on Thursday echoed remarks earlier in the day by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who urged “all parties” in the Middle East to stop “escalatory actions,” warning that the Middle East was on a path “toward more conflict, more violence, more suffering, more insecurity,” and declaring, “It is crucial that we break this cycle.”
“That starts with a ceasefire that we’ve been working on,” Blinken told reporters in Mongolia, alongside his local counterpart. “And to get there, it also first requires all parties to talk, to stop taking any escalatory actions, it requires them to find reasons to come to an agreement.”
Blinken did not directly respond to Haniyeh’s death, apart from reiterating that the United States had no knowledge of the planning of such a killing and that the US was not involved in it.
Western diplomats held urgent discussions after Haniyeh’s death to prevent a full-blown war, and have been putting pressure on Iran not to escalate the situation, according to a report on Thursday in the Financial Times.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that US officials believe Haniyeh’s killing will make reaching a Gaza deal more difficult, “but insist the talks aren’t dead.”
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani denounced the killing on X, writing, “How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?”
Nevertheless, the Qatari leader told Blinken that he remains committed to the negotiations, according to The Wall Street Journal, and on Thursday night Israel’s Kan news also reported that Qatar intends to remain involved in efforts.
In Israel, thousands of protesters, including relatives of the hostages, demonstrated around the country Thursday evening to mark 300 days since the captives’ abduction, calling on the government to arrive at a deal to bring them home.
Hundreds marched through Tel Aviv, holding yellow ribbons and photos of hostages, then blocked the Begin intersection near the IDF’s Kirya headquarters before the main rally was held at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. Similar protests were held around the country, including in Jerusalem, Beersheba and Herzliya.
Nissan Calderon, who survived the Hamas onslaught and whose brother Ofer Calderon is still being held in Gaza, charged that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been procrastinating on signing a deal.
“Close the deal,” he said. “Again and again, you are not doing what you should have done 300 days ago, to stop everything and do only one thing, to return 115 citizens of the State of Israel, immediately.”
It is believed that 111 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF. One more person is listed as missing since October 7, and their fate is still unknown. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Charlie Summers and Jessica Steinberg contributed to this report.
