Execution of hostages will color talks, US says, but deal still possible
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The White House says Hamas’s “execution” of six Israeli hostages last week has influenced the way that ceasefire negotiations are conducted in the coming days, but it only underscores further the importance of securing a deal.
“The executions over the weekend just underscores how important it is that we keep hope alive and keep going,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby says in a press briefing. “I’d be lying to you if I said that the work going on yesterday, today, tomorrow and the days ahead [is] not going to be informed, shaped or colored by our own grief, sorrow, shock and outrage about what Hamas did.”
“Yes, of course, a deal is possible. The president wouldn’t be personally engaged the way he is, and he wouldn’t have taken the time over the weekend to meet with his team if he didn’t believe it was something we can achieve,” Kirby says.
“We are still actively working on this. We are still in constant consultations with Qatar, Egypt and Israel. Qatar and Egypt are in touch with Hamas. We’re going to do what we can to get it done,” he asserts, while declining to provide a timeline.
He also appears to walk back the White House’s characterization of the bridging proposal for a hostage deal that it submitted last month to Israel and Hamas as “final,” declining to use the terminology.
“We’re working on a proposal that will secure the release of the remaining hostages and will include massive and immediate relief for the people of Gaza and also result in a stoppage of the fighting,” Kirby says.
A senior administration official briefing reporters on August 16, the day that the proposal was submitted, repeatedly called it a “final bridging proposal.”
The shift from the White House appears to be an admission that the proposal it presented last month will still undergo significant changes, if not being tossed out completely.
