US President Joe Biden pledged to work to prevent the immediate resumption of the Gaza war as he welcomed the completion of the third phase of the Gaza hostage deal by which 40 Israelis, one Filipino and 17 Thai citizens have been freed.
“We’ll work to extend the deal,” Biden told reporters during a brief press conference in Nantucket.
“This deal is structured so it can be extended to keep building on these results. That is my goal, that is our goal, this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into Gaza,” he said.
“This is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour approach,” he said.
Extending the ceasefire agreement
Biden spoke about the deal which included a four-day pause in the Gaza War that began at 10 a.m. Friday was scheduled to end on Tuesday morning after the final release of what could at least 10 or 11 Israeli captives.
They are among the over 239 captives Hamas seized during its October infiltration into southern Israel when it also killed over 1,200 people.
Israel launched a military campaign after the attack to oust Hamas from Gaza, but paused those efforts to focus on a hostage release deal, which could be extended beyond its original four days. The pause can be extended an additional 24 hours for every ten hostages that are freed.
Israel in exchange agreed that for every hostage released, it would free three jailed Palestinian women and minors, held on security-related offenses.
Some 78 Palestinian prisoners were freed in the first two days and an additional 39 were expected to be released on Sunday.
During the pause, some 200 trucks of humanitarian aid a day have entered Gaza through Rafah.
Biden, who was instrumental in the creation of the deal together with Egyptian and Qatari mediators, told reporters he was looking for a way to extend the pause.
US citizens held in Gaza
Some nine US citizens are believed to be held in Gaza.
“For weeks I have been advocating a pause in the [Gaza] fighting to increase assistance for Gaza civilians and to facilitate the release of the hostages,” he said.
“Thousands have been killed and from the earliest days of the crisis,” he said, he has been working with Egypt and Jordan to help innocent Palestinian civilians.
“We worked urgently to take advance of the pause to surge aid into Gaza” including fuel, food, water, medicine and cooking gas.
“More is needed but this deal is delivering life-saving results,” he said.
Biden pledged to continue working with Qatar, Egypt and Israel to ensure that all the hostages are released.
In the future, he said, Hard and necessary steps are needed to build an integrated future for the region that includes a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I would like to see the pause go on as long as prisoners are going out,” he said.
“All the players in the region are looking for a way to end this so the hostages are released and Hamas is no longer in control of any portion of Gaza,” Biden said.
He also spoke about the release Sunday of Avigail Idan, four, who holds Israeli-American citizenship.“Today she is free,” he said.
“She has been through a terrible trauma. Her mom was killed in front of her when her Kibbutz was attacked by Hamas terrorists on October 7.
Avigail ran to her Dad, who was gunned down while using his body to shield little Avigail. She then ran to her neighbor for help, where they were all taken hostage by Hamas and held for 50 days.”
“What she endured is unthinkable,” he said.
“Thank God she is home. I wish I were there to hold her,” Biden said.