The “tragic” Palestinian deaths during violent eruptions around the delivery of Gaza aid could complicate talks for a hostage deal, US President Joe Biden said on Thursday as he downplayed initial optimism about the possibility of an agreement by early next week.
He discussed what the White House called an “alarming incident” in Gaza on Thursday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken separately spoke with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani.
Both countries have been mediating a deal for the remaining 134 hostages, which would include a pause to the Gaza war and the release of Palestinian security prisoners and terrorists jailed by Israel.
An Israeli delegation was in Qatar this week for talks following a high-level meeting over the weekend in Paris.
Biden had originally optimistically predicted that a deal could be in place as early as Monday. Before boarding Marine One on Thursday, he told reporters it “probably” would not happen by then, adding, “But I am hopeful.”
One reporter asked him if he thought the Gaza aid incident would complicate the talks. “I know it will,” Biden responded.
Leaders feel that the Gaza tragedy calls for a ceasefire
The two back-to-back aid delivery incidents that led to possibly over 100 Palestinian deaths in a situation that involved both Israeli fire and a stampede, highlighted for global leaders the urgent need to pause, if not end the war.
The White House said that the emir, Sisi, and Biden “grieved the loss of civilian lives and agreed that this incident underscored the urgency of bringing negotiations to a close as soon as possible and expanding the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.”
Biden in his separate calls with the two leaders also discussed the terms of a deal, which the White House said would last for at least six weeks and could “be built into something more enduring.”
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that the reason for the calls between the US, Egypt, and Qatar was that Biden wanted to “try and push past this situation to put in place a temporary cease-fire, Miller said.
The aid incident in Gaza may well “complicate” the deal, but our hope is that it will not and we are going to push very hard to try to get a deal over the line,” he said.
In Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was doing everything possible to achieve the “sacred goal” of freeing all the hostages. He had demanded in advance, he said, the names of all the hostages that would be part of the deal.
His words appeared to acknowledge speculation that not all the hostages would be freed in the arrangement which is expected to involve only 40 or so of the captives. It’s speculated that one captive would be freed on every day of the pause in the war, in exchange for 10 jailed Palestinians.
Netanyahu said he had not yet received an answer to his request. It is “too early to tell” if there will be an arrangement for a deal in the coming days, Netanyahu said.
He pledged, however, not to cave to essential principled points and any “delusional” Hamas demands.
“We are determined to bring them all back. With a plan or without a plan - we will fight until complete victory,” Netanyahu stated.
He has insisted that Israel must be able to complete the war, even with a hostage deal, so that it can eliminate Hamas. The terror group has demanded a permanent ceasefire and a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza. It is believed that it has agreed not to insist on those demands for a deal that would involve only 40 hostages.
A deal, should it be reached, would delay any planned Israeli military operation in Rafah, near Gaza’s border with Egypt.
The international community has demanded that Israel not conduct that operation fearing that it would lead to a humanitarian disaster, given that over 1.3 million Palestinians are in that area, many of whom fled there to escape bombings in the southern part of the enclave. The US has said it must see a plan to protect those civilians before it would support such a plan.
Netanyahu said he was determined to push forward with a Rafah military operation to destroy the battalions there.
“We will do it while evacuating the civilian population from the combat zones, we will do it while taking care of the humanitarian needs and we will do it while maintaining international law - because that is how we operate.”
In Washington on Thursday, however, the focus was on the aid disaster as the US grappled to better understand the details of what had happened.
Miller said, “We are urgently seeking additional information on exactly what took place. We have been in touch with the Israeli government since early this morning and understand that an investigation is underway. We will be monitoring that investigation closely and pressing for answers.”