White House says Hamas responsible for murder of hostages in Gaza

The White House asserts that Hamas is responsible for the murder of six Israeli hostages in Gaza last week, a short while after US President Joe Biden appeared to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of hostage-ceasefire negotiations.

Biden was asked by reporters before a Situation Room briefing regarding the hostage talks whether he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a deal. He responded, “No,” and because he was not asked the same question regarding Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, it seemed plausible that the US was primarily blaming Israel for the ongoing stalemate.

After pushback from Netanyahu’s office, which called Biden’s remarks “puzzling” and harmful to the talks, a US official says, “The president has been clear that Hamas is responsible for killing [American-Israeli hostage] Hersh [Goldberg-Polin] and the others and Hamas leaders will pay for their crimes.”

But explaining Biden’s response to the reporter’s question from earlier, the US official says the president “is also calling for urgency from the Israeli government in securing the release of the missing remaining hostages.”