US President Joe Biden was asked on Monday about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s view that it is better to conduct negotiations under fire rather than during a ceasefire.
“I’ll reserve that for my discussion with him,” the President told reporters after casting his early-voting ballot in Delaware.
Asked about Egypt’s new proposal for a ceasefire, Biden replied, “My staff is talking to them right now. I’m going to get out here, get on a secure line, and follow up on that.”
He then added ,”We need a ceasefire. We should end this war. It should end. It should end. It should end.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Sunday publicly proposed a two-day ceasefire deal in which four Israeli hostages would be released in exchange for terrorist prisoners held in Israel and in the ten days following, negotiations would be held regarding a more extensive deal.
Earlier on Monday, a source involved in the negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal being conducted in Doha told the Quds Press news agency that Hamas does not support a limited timeframe of several days in which the organization would return some of the hostages and afterwards the fighting would continue.
Later, however, sources in Hamas told the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the terrorist organization is willing to consider Sisi’s proposal for a hostage release deal as well as other proposals.
During previous rounds of negotiations, the United States was pushing an outline for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that Biden first laid out in May, but Hamas has continuously rejected that outline and every other proposal that has been presented to it.