On final day of presidency, Biden hails hostage deal, ‘looks forward’ to end of war
‘After so much pain, destruction and loss of life, today the guns have gone silent,’ says outgoing president; adds Middle East ‘fundamentally transformed’ after Israel’s campaign
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief

In a speech on the final full day of his presidency, US President Joe Biden said he “looks forward” to the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal being “fully implemented,” in his first remarks to reporters shortly after the first three released Israeli hostages crossed into Israeli territory.
“After so much pain, destruction and loss of life, today the guns have gone silent,” Biden said.
Biden said he had been updated that the three hostages released moments before he spoke “appear to be in good health,” and recalled that on day 16 of the first phase, indirect talks between Israel and Hamas regarding the terms of a potential phase two of the deal — when the remaining hostages are to be released — will commence.
That phase will be a “permanent end of the war without Hamas in power or able to threaten Israel,” he stressed. When asked after his remarks whether he was concerned about Hamas reconstituting in Gaza, Biden replied: “No.”
Earlier Sunday, before the three women were returned to Israel, President-elect Donald Trump welcomed their expected release in a post on his Truth Social network: “Hostages starting to come out today! Three wonderful young women will be first.”

Biden also reiterated that the deal was the result of the framework he had unveiled in a May 31, 2024, speech, which went on to receive broad international backing, including from the UN Security Council.
The president maintained that the deal was finally reached because of the US-backed Israeli military pressure on Hamas and Iran’s other proxies.
He said he had heard his critics out, but ultimately concluded that abandoning the course he was on, which saw him largely back the Israeli government in the war, would not have led to a ceasefire and would have also resulted in the regional war his critics feared.
The main criticism Biden faced from the left were claims he should have placed more pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and withheld more military assistance, while those on the right criticized him for allegedly micro-managing Israel’s prosecution of the war and slow-walking weapon shipments to Israel.
Standing by his strategy, Biden said the Middle East is “fundamentally transformed” as a result of the conflict, with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar now dead, the terror group severely weakened and its sponsors similarly decimated, including Iran and Hezbollah.

He asserted that while the US pursued diplomatic solutions, it also provided significant military support to Israel, which allowed the IDF to decapitate Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities.
“Israel’s campaign was so successful that Hezbollah did what it said that it would never do, and abandoned Hamas,” he said, by agreeing to a ceasefire in late November before one was reached in Gaza.
Lebanon is now ruled by a new prime minister and a president who support maintaining the country’s sovereignty, free from Hezbollah control, Biden said, reiterating that Iran is at its weakest state in decades and that the US helped Israel twice thwart missile attacks from Tehran over the past year.
In a rare statement, Biden claimed that the Palestinians now have a “credible path” to statehood, suggesting that this was the result of Sunday’s ceasefire, but did not elaborate further.

Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that he will not allow such a result, even at the cost of losing a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has made a clear political horizon for a two-state solution one of its primary demands for such a deal.
Still, Biden said a future in the Mideast where Israel is more integrated with its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia, was now possible as a result of the hostage deal. The outgoing president thanked his senior aide Brett McGurk for leading the hostage talks on behalf of the US.
“Now it falls on the next administration to implement this deal,” he said, noting that he was pleased that his team and Trump’s team “spoke as one” in the talks’ final days.

The deal was the result of Washington’s persistence, the support of its allies and “diplomacy backed by deterrence,” Biden said, urging Trump to take the same approach. “The pursuit of lasting peace must always be our calling.”
Biden is set to leave office on Monday after just one term as president. He will be replaced by Donald Trump, who will take the oath of office for the second time during his inauguration at the Capitol in Washington, DC.