US President Joe Biden emphasized to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Tuesday that, following the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, the priority should now shift to securing the release of hostages and achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, two US officials told Barak Ravid of Axios on Wednesday.
Currently, 101 hostages remain in Hamas captivity in Gaza, including seven American citizens.
US officials told Axios that Biden is committed to pushing for a hostage release deal until his final day in office, even if President-elect Donald Trump ultimately receives credit for any agreement.
“Biden thinks that doing nothing and telling the hostage families to wait until Jan. 20 would be crazy,” one of Biden's aides told the news website.
The phone call between Biden and Netanyahu, which occurred shortly after Israel’s Security Cabinet approved the Lebanon ceasefire, was brief, according to Axios. Aside from Lebanon, the conversation focused solely on efforts to secure a hostage deal and establish a ceasefire in Gaza.
“We have an opportunity now. Let’s get the hostages,” Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. US officials said Netanyahu responded positively, expressing a willingness to pursue the effort.
Israeli and US officials believe the Lebanon ceasefire agreement has improved prospects for a Gaza deal, even if only the first phase—releasing some of the hostages—is implemented.
A senior Israeli Cabinet minister told Axios that Netanyahu is open to a partial hostage deal that would not require ending the war or fully withdrawing Israeli forces from Gaza.
“There is an intention to make a renewed effort to get a deal in Gaza. It was clear that the war in Lebanon had to end first. Now Hamas is in a weaker position because Hezbollah is out of the war,” the minister said.
The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on the report.
The Hamas terrorist organization put out an official statement earlier on Wednesday, saying that it is interested in a deal to end the war which began after it launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
However, in that statement, Hamas again insisted that any agreement must include an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
Israel and Hamas have held several rounds of indirect negotiations, with the US, Egypt and Qatar serving as mediators, in an attempt to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and for Hamas to free the hostages it has been holding since the October 7, 2023 massacre.
The United States had been pushing an outline for a ceasefire and hostage release deal that President Joe Biden first laid out in May, but Hamas rejected that proposal and every other proposal that has been presented to it.
Recently, Egypt 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.
Hamas initially said it 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, sources in Hamas told the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the terrorist organization is willing to consider Egypt’s proposal as well as other proposals.