President Biden called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a telephone conversation this week to take a three-day pause in the fighting.
This was revealed to Axios by multiple sources on Tuesday, and Biden’s request appears to have been rejected, as the call took place on Monday and Israel has since It reaffirms that there will be no ceasefire until the hostages held by Hamas are released.
“According to a proposal being discussed between the US, Israel and Qatar, Hamas would release 10 to 15 hostages and use the three-day period pause to verify the identities of all hostages and provide a list of names of the people it is holding, the U.S. official said. according to to the report.
But Netanyahu gave a speech on Tuesday in which he declared that his forces “reached deeper than Hamas could ever have imagined” and praised the killing of thousands of Hamas terrorists and commanders. ‘There will be no ceasefire without the return of our abductees’ he emphasized in a message “to both our enemies and our friends.”
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had simultaneously stated that the IDF is fighting “in the heart” of Gaza City and “tightening the noose” around Hamas.
Regarding Monday’s phone call, Axios Further revealed: “The two US and Israeli officials said Netanyahu said to Biden he does not trust Hamas’s intentions and does not believe that they are willing to agree to an agreement on the hostages.”
The Israeli leader “also said that Israel could lose current international support for the operation if fighting were to stop for three days,” the officials said. Netanyahu further told Biden that Hamas took advantage of a humanitarian lull in 2014 to kidnap an Israeli soldier and others.
The official White House call during the Biden-Netanyahu meeting said only that the two leaders “discussed ongoing efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas” – but without providing further details.
Of an estimated total of 240 prisoners, Hamas has so far released four hostages, reportedly largely thanks to Qatari mediation, but lately U.S. officials have said progress has since stalled.
Israel says it was able to free a female soldier during the initial phase of ground operations, while reports say dead hostages have been found in some cases, possibly as a result of airstrikes.
Hamas, meanwhile, has continued to publish short videos of what the group claims are successful ambush attacks on tanks and armored convoy units, also showing close-quarters fighting in the city, but generally without IDF ground troops nowhere in sight . It appears that the IDF is entering Gaza City solely with armor, and likely with ground infantry forces remaining in the rear until an urban area is initially prepared through tanks, artillery, and airstrikes.
Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the The US stands with Israel and rejects calls for a complete ceasefire. “Israel has repeatedly told us that there is no going back to the period before Hamas’ barbaric attacks – we fully agree with that,” he said. He then said of G7 counterparts: “We all agreed that humanitarian pauses would advance key objectives.”