At briefing from negotiators, Biden says Hamas must be held accountable for hostage murders
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have just received a briefing from the administration’s hostage negotiators and their national security teams, the White House says.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of Hamas’s killing of six Israeli hostages, including American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose bodies were recovered by the IDF over the weekend.
During the meeting, “Biden expressed his devastation and outrage at the murder and reaffirmed the importance of holding Hamas’s leaders accountable,” according to a White House readout.
This line is notable given that just before entering the meeting, Biden was asked by reporters whether he thinks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been doing enough to secure a deal and he responded, “No.”
As is often the case, reporters did not ask the US president whether he thought Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had been doing enough, so the media narrative focused on Netanyahu.
During the Situation Room meeting, Biden and Harris received an update from the US negotiation team on the status of the bridging proposal outlined by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt, after being drafted by the US on August 16, the US readout says.
They “discussed next steps in the ongoing effort to secure the release of hostages, including continuing consultations with co-mediators Qatar and Egypt,” the US readout adds.
Participating in the Situation Room meeting were CIA Director Bill Burns, White House Mideast Czar Brett McGurk, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, Harris’s National Security Adviser Phil Gordon, and Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients.
Shortly before entering the meeting, Biden told reporters he was “very close” to presenting a final hostage deal proposal by the end the week — what appears would be a take it or leave it offer.
Seven US nationals are still held by Hamas, with three of them having been declared dead.
