Joe Biden says he believes a new temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is possible next Monday.
During a visit to New York on Monday, the US president gave a spontaneous update in response to a reporter’s question about when he expected the ceasefire to begin.
“My national security adviser tells me we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet,” Biden said. “I hope that by next Monday we will have a ceasefire.”
Biden made the remarks after a taping of NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers in New York.
Over the weekend, Israel’s war cabinet approved broad terms of a deal to halt fighting for several weeks in exchange for the release of hostages. The weeks-long pause will allow hundreds of trucks to deliver aid to Gaza, where nearly 30,000 people have died and disease and hunger plague much of the population, according to the health ministry.
Last week, the U.N. food agency suspended aid to northern Gaza, citing Israeli gunfire and “utter chaos and violence caused by the breakdown of civil order” amid growing reports of famine.
Biden’s remarks came hours after a U.S. Air Force service member set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest the war in Gaza.
The offensive follows an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in Israel that killed about 1,200 people and took nearly 200 hostage. As part of a previous deal, about 100 hostages were released in exchange for a week-long pause. Israeli officials believe about 130 hostages remain in Gaza.
U.S. officials hope a weeks-long truce will provide a path to ending the war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue Israel’s bombing after the pause. “I have three goals for the war. The first is to free the hostages. The second is to destroy Hamas. The third is to ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future,” he told CBS’s “Face of the Nation.” . “Understand that we cannot have peace unless we achieve total victory. We cannot let Hamas stay where it is.”
The political situation has become complicated for Biden, who is seeking votes in the US presidential primaries. During Tuesday’s election in Michigan, activists urged Democrats to mark ballots as “uncommitted” rather than endorsing Biden to push the president to change course and call for a permanent ceasefire.
