By The Opinion
02 Sep 2024, 18:44 PM EDT
Under the premise of “take it or leave it,” the US government will present a final ceasefire plan to Israel and Hamas in the coming days. which, if not accepted by both parties, could mean the abandonment of negotiations.
According to the report, the proposal was drawn up before news of the killing of the six hostages. However, according to information revealed by The Washington Post, this knowledge “only adds urgency to the matter. Negotiations cannot be made forever.”
Citing a senior administration official, he said the United States has been talking to Egypt and Qatar, If both sides do not agree, he says, this could mark the end of the US-led negotiations.
Asked about this information this morning at the White House, President Biden simply said: “We are close to an agreement to release the hostages, but I don’t think Netanyahu is doing enough.”
The Biden administration said it was unclear whether the recovery of the six hostages would make it more or less likely that a deal could be reached in the coming weeks.
“This cannot be negotiated any longer. At some point this process has to end,” said the senior official, He said the proposal had been in the works since before the hostages were found dead in a tunnel in southern Gaza. “Does this derail the agreement? No. If anything, it should add additional urgency in this closing phase, which we are already in.”
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari told a news conference that the six hostages were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” an assessment that was backed by the senior official, who said the United States shares a similar assessment.
According to the White House agenda, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met with the US hostage deal negotiating team “following the killing of American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday, and will discuss efforts to move toward an agreement that would secure the release of the remaining hostages.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to families of American hostages held in Gaza on Sunday, government sources said, explaining that President Biden is considering presenting Israel and Hamas with a final proposal that would allow for the release of hostages and a ceasefire in Gaza later this week.
The urgency has increased, the newspaper said, after Israeli forces found the lifeless bodies of six hostages in a tunnel in Gaza on Saturday, including that of young American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Biden confirmed this on Sunday in a statement in which he said he was “devastated and shocked” by the confirmation of the death of the 23-year-old, whose parents recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention to call for an end to violence between Israel and the Palestinian militia Hamas and to negotiate the release of hostages held since the October 7 attack.
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