President Joe Biden confirmed his administration is working toward a six-week ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip during an appearance alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House.
“The U.S. is working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, which would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm into Gaza for at least six weeks, which we could then take the time to build something more enduring,” Biden told reporters Monday in the Cross Hall.
Biden claimed that he has “encouraged Israeli leaders to keep working to achieve the deal” and that the United States will “do everything possible to make it happen.”
While mourning the loss of life inflicted by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack, Biden underscored his opposition to “any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza” and that “too many” of the more than 27,000 Palestinians killed during the war “have been innocent civilians and children.”
“The Palestinian Authority must urgently reform so it can effectively deliver to the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Gaza,” he said, adding that the “effort” for a Palestinian state was “already underway” before Hamas’s attack and that it is “more urgent today.”
“Together, we will keep working to complete what we started: to integrate the region, to bring about peace between Israel and all its Arab neighbors,” Biden said.
Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have increasingly appeared at odds in public and private since the attack, with the president describing the latter’s response in Gaza as “over the top.”
While the conflict has tested Biden’s foreign policy, it has simultaneously created political problems for him domestically as both Jewish and Arab or Muslim Americans criticize his handling of the conflict.
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When asked during the royal’s arrival whether Netanyahu accepted his advice, Biden replied with two words.
“Everybody does,” he said.
