Biden expected to use White House speech to increase pressure on Hamas to agree to hostage deal — US official

US President Joe Biden will use his White House speech, which he is slated to give momentarily, in order to increase pressure on Hamas to secure a hostage agreement, a US official tells The Times of Israel.

Biden will highlight Israel’s willingness to cooperate with the latest proposal, which would see a phased release of the hostages, and urge Hamas to do the same.

The deal would start with a weeks-long ceasefire that the US aims to turn permanent.

It is unclear, though, whether Israel will be willing to fully accept such terms given that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed not to end the war until Hamas has been defeated.

Yesterday, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi reportedly told several relatives of some of the hostages that the current government is not prepared to even accept a deal that would see the release of all remaining 125 hostages if it is conditioned on Israel ending the war.

Hanegbi said he does believe, however, that the government will be able to secure the first phase of the currently negotiated hostage deal, which would see the release of up to 33 female, elderly and sick hostages.

Last weekend, CIA chief William Burns held a meeting in Paris with Mossad chief David Barnea and Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani to try and re-launch another round of hostage talks. The sides crafted an updated proposal that was green-lit by Israel.

It was then passed along to Hamas, which said on Thursday that it would not agree to re-launch indirect negotiations with Israel unless it halts all fighting in Gaza.