WASHINGTON – The White House was scheduled to host Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his delegation of senior officials for several hours on Thursday, to include an individual meeting with President Joe Biden, a joint meeting with Biden and the American hostage families and a further meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Thursday’s meeting was to be the first between Biden and Netanyahu since Biden’s trip to Israel days after October 7, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.
While the official said he’s not going to put a time frame on the closing of the hostage deal, the administration believes the deal is in the “closing stages” and that it’s time to close the agreement.
There are serious issues that still need to be resolved and “things are needed” both from Hamas and the Israeli side, according to the official who said the “closing stage” of the deal on the table now is different than it was a month ago due to intense negotiations.
Hamas had been “very dug in” on its position for a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces before a vague promise to release the hostages.
The official said negotiators worked out a detailed text of how the hostage exchange could actually work as well as the initial phasing of the deal, which would see women, men over 50, and wounded hostages released over 42 days with negotiations halfway through for conditions of the second phase.
“We can’t do a deal until the issues are worked out,” the official said, emphasizing that the administration believes the issues are resolvable. “We do not want to get into a deal until we know how it’s going to go.”
Deal not ready for implementation, but hopes for it to be reached
The official noted that similar to the November deal, there’s an exchange provision for Palestinian prisoners in Israel, of which the details need to be worked out.
The deal is not at the point where it’s ready to be signed and implemented, according to the official, but it’s “not going to take an indefinite period to breach.”
Biden’s conversation with Netanyahu was to be about the remaining gaps and how to close them. The official said, “We will see more activity here in the coming weeks,” regarding the deal.