President Joe Biden said Monday that he hoped that Israel and Hamas could agree to a new ceasefire deal by the end of the coming weekend.
The United States, Egypt, and Qatar have continued to broker conversations between Israel and the terrorist group in recent weeks and months. Biden himself has come under increasing domestic scrutiny to elevate his calls for peace in Gaza, intensified by the self-immolation of an active duty U.S. Air Force member outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Sunday.
The president was in a New York ice cream shop Monday when reporters asked him when a ceasefire could go into effect.
“I hope by the beginning of the weekend — I mean, the end of the weekend,” he responded. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close, we’re close, we’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire.”
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, had signaled progress toward a wider ceasefire over the weekend after Israel and Hamas rejected proposed terms last month.
“The representatives of Israel, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar met in Paris and came to an understanding among the four of them about what the basic contours of a hostage deal for temporary ceasefire would look like,” Sullivan said in an interview on Sunday. “That work is underway. And we hope that in the coming days, we can drive to a point where there is actually a firm and final agreement on this issue.”
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And White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters traveling with Biden to New York earlier on Monday that advancing a temporary ceasefire remained a “priority” for the president.
Biden’s comments come on the eve of the Michigan presidential primary where activists, led by Arab American and Muslim voters, are urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in protest of Biden’s Israel policies ahead of his 2024 election rematch with former President Donald Trump.
