The White House reported that US President Joe Biden held private discussions with the leaders of Egypt, Israel, and Qatar on Wednesday. These were the first to be made public since Israel and Hamas announced a hostage agreement.
The agreement, which offers a four-day calm to war-torn Gaza and sees Israel releasing scores of Palestinian inmates in exchange for Hamas freeing at least fifty hostages, was arranged by Biden and his administration through negotiations with Qatar and Egypt.
The three leaders, however, come from different backgrounds. Qatar, for example, is home to Hamas’s political office and serves as a major diplomatic channel. Israel, on the other hand, has vowed to destroy the Islamist organization, and Egypt has long supported Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip while simultaneously advocating for protections for Palestinian civilians during the ongoing conflict.
All three conversations concerned “the deal to secure the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its brutal assault against Israel on October 7 and the latest developments in the region,” the White House said.
Biden and Qatar Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani “committed to remain in close contact to ensure the deal is fully implemented,” the White House said in a readout of the call.
“They reiterated the importance of protecting civilian lives, respecting international humanitarian law and increasing and sustaining humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza,” it said.
When the fighting will halt and the hostages will be exchanged remains to be seen, however, with Israeli officials telling AFP that there will be “no pause” before Friday, delaying a widely anticipated lull which had been expected to start at 10:00 am local timeBiden spoke in separate calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
In his call with Netanyahu, the president “assured the Prime Minister that he will continue working to secure the release of all remaining hostages.”
“The President further emphasized the importance of maintaining calm along the Lebanese border as well as in the West Bank.”
Meanwhile Biden told Sisi that “under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank” or “the redrawing of the borders of Gaza” — while also affirming that Gaza cannot “remain a sanctuary for Hamas.”
“The President affirmed his commitment to the establishment of a Palestinian state and recognized Egypt’s essential role in setting the conditions for that outcome.”
The ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the organization that controls the Gaza Strip, began on October 7 following the bloodiest attack in Israel’s history, in which Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people, the majority of whom were civilians, and kidnapped over 240 more.
In response, Israel launched a massive bombing and ground attack that killed 14,100 people—thousands of them children—and left much of the coastal region in ruins.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, has declared that he still wants to destroy Hamas and that there will not be a long-term peace.
